Gary Moskowitz
Glendale High School Co-principal LeRoy Sherman got on the
loudspeaker this week and thanked students for their hard work.
Glendale High has, for two years, been categorized by the
California Department of Education as an underperforming school
because of its scores on the Academic Performance Index.
But the school's 2003 scores, which were released Friday, show
improvement in all categories on the school assessment index.
"We are very pleased," Sherman said. "We talked to our students
about their individual needs to improve, and they took it and ran
with it. We are moving in the right direction, and this is one
indication of that."
The API measures school performance based on annual scores on
California Standards Tests, the California Achievement Test and the
California High School Exit Exam. Students take the exams each
spring. The API has been administered since 1999.
All 20 of Glendale Unified School District's elementary schools,
its four middle schools and four high schools met or exceeded their
2003 API targets.
The highest achievable score on the index is 1000. The state
target for all schools is 800, but each school is given a growth
target and student subgroup targets that they must make in order to
make their school-wide API.
Ten Glendale elementary schools, Rosemont Middle School and Clark
Magnet and Crescenta Valley high schools made 800 or higher on the
API in 2003. All but five schools in the district will be eligible to
receive state awards for their performance, but because of the
state's budget deficit, API awards will not be offered this year,
officials said.
The state will also not issue sanctions for underperforming
schools, officials said. Cerritos Elementary School and Glendale
High, which were participating voluntarily in the state's
underperforming school program, no longer have to because both
schools made their API growth and student-subgroup growth targets.
Jefferson Elementary School and Glendale and Hoover high schools
showed the biggest improvement from 2002, all increasing their scores
by more than 80 points from last year.
Eleven elementary schools, Roosevelt Middle School and Glendale
High School all increased by more than 100 points on the API over a
five-year period.
Wilson Middle School, like nearly all schools in the district,
regularly trains teachers on how to teach to state standards that are
measured by the test, and made math and English a "team effort" for
all faculty, Assistant Principal Mercedes Metz said. Wilson scored
781 schoolwide and improved 37 points from last year.
"We are doing this to prepare kids for being good students, not
just to do good on the test," Metz said. "The numbers are only piece
of the story of what happens in the classroom every day."
