Part 2: Carlsbad Schools' API Scores Show Volatility

The latest Academic Performance Index (API) numbers, recently released, give the Carlsbad Unified School District high marks, with all schools achieving scores over 800. However, compared with the previous year, some schools saw steep declines, others had pronounced increases, while still other scores were flat.

At the middle school level, Valley grew by 28 points, Aviara Oaks gained seven points, and Calavera Hills declined by 20 points.

Carlsbad High School recorded no growth or change. Its 2010 Growth API was 812, the same as its 2009 Base API.

The API results for Carlsbad High, although over 800, were disappointing for Suzanne O'Connell, Carlsbad's assistant superintendent for instructional services, who said she would like to see greater growth.

"Any time you're over 800, you have something to celebrate," she said. "But we're never going to be happy with our results when they're stagnant because we think that good things are going on at the high school. You've got a lot of teachers and students working very hard, and our results don't reflect the good things that are happening."

O'Connell said staff was focusing this year on student engagement and leveraging classroom time "so that students are deeply invested in their own learning and not just a passive participant. Sometimes the harder your teachers work, the less the kids have to do. … Are the kids actively engaged in their own learning? Because we know that when that occurs, that's when maximum results will occur."

The 20-point decline at Calavera Hills Middle School could be the result of numerous factors, O'Connell said. "There are so many different things that go into why that could be," she said. "You can start grasping at all kinds of different straws."

O'Connell said Calavera Hills has had "a fairly significant demographic change over the past several years. I believe that, as with many of our districts, the economy has played into that."

Also, Calavera Hills is about half the enrollment of the district's other two middle schools.

"It takes fewer students to fluctuate to give you that significant of a change from one year to the next," she said. "It's not that they're not working hard, because you get in there and see the kind of work they're doing. [But] the smaller the school, the tougher it is from a statistics standpoint."

The state's API numbers, which can be found on the California Department of Education website at cde.ca.gov, are compiled based primarily on the performance of public school students in grades 2-11 who take California Standards Tests each spring. The API is a number between 200 and 1,000 that rates each school's academic performance. The statewide target, set 10 years ago, is 800.

API results also include API numbers for each school's demographic subgroups of students who are categorized by race, ethnicity and background. This provides schools with data that can help close the achievement gap.

O'Connell said the greater the number of students at one school from a particular subgroup, the easier it is for staff to focus on the needs of that subgroup. Schoolwide intervention efforts, curriculum changes, teaching strategies and other initiatives can pinpoint that dominant subgroup's needs.

"It's far easier to implement schoolwide across-the-board [programs] than trying to target specific students," she said.

Federal Benchmarks

The federal benchmark, Adequate Yearly Progress, is different from the state's system and measures improvement based on a number of criteria which vary from school to school. There can be as many as 50 criteria, and a school can fail to make AYP if even one is not met.

Carlsbad High School did not make AYP, meeting 16 out of 18 criteria. The two missed criteria were the Hispanic and economically disadvantaged subgroups that fell short of their targets for proficiency in mathematics.

There were 2,084 students included in Carlsbad High's 2010 growth API (12th-grade students don't participate in the testing). The Asian subgroup, typically high-performing, dropped 31 points in its API this year, from 907 down to 876.

The district's highest-performing middle school, Aviara Oaks, also did not make AYP, meeting 16 out of 17 criteria. With 950 test-takers, the school's economically disadvantaged subgroup missed its target for proficiency in English/language arts.

Valley Middle School, with 933 test-takers, grew 28 points this year, coming within reach of Aviara Oaks by seven points. Yet it also did not make AYP, meeting 19 out of 21 criteria. Its Hispanic and English learner subgroups missed their targets for proficiency in English/language arts.

Despite this, Valley Middle School saw large gains in API scores for individual subgroups this year. The Hispanic subgroup grew 31 points to an API of 784, the white subgroup grew 29 points to 921, the economically disadvantaged increased by 41 points to 780, and English learners rose 33 points to a 717 API.

Calavera Hills Middle School, with 570 test-takers, also did not make AYP, meeting 14 out of 17 AYP criteria. The school's Hispanic and economically disadvantaged subgroups missed their targets for proficiency in English/language arts, and Calavera Hills missed its schoolwide target for proficiency in math. Calavera Hills dropped 20 points from last year, and its Hispanic and economically disadvantaged subgroups each declined 65 points this year.

Sharing best practices among the district's schools can help raise achievement for students at the lower-performing schools and is a primary focus in the district, O'Connell said.

"Our schools that are experiencing high levels of success continue to do so," she said. "So you know that there's something going on at those schools that is certainly allowing them to continue that kind of progress."

The Carlsbad Unified School District enrolls about 10,000 students in kindergarten through 12th grade. Elementary schools are K-5, and middle schools are grades 6-8. Carlsbad High School enrolls about 3,000 students in 9th through 12th grades. Construction on a second high school has begun and is expected to be completed by the fall of 2013.

This ends Part Two of a two-part series. Click here to read Part One, which discusses achievement for Carlsbad's elementary schools.

Below is a chart showing API score changes from 2009-2010 

                                                 2010 API            2009 API            Change

                                       Growth                        Base

Carlsbad Unified            859                         857                         +2  

Elementary Schools  

Aviara Oaks                               941                         928                         +13  

Buena Vista                               855                         876                         -21  

Calavera Hills                           846                         865                         -19  

Hope                                            904                         911                         -7  

Jefferson                                   854                         841                         +13  

Kelly                                            924                         939                         -15  

Magnolia                                   876                         882                         -6  

Pacific Rim                              971                         970                         +1  

Poinsettia                                878                         870                         +8

Middle Schools  

Aviara Oaks                             882                         875                          +7  

Calavera Hills                         834                         854                          -20  

Valley                                         875                         847                          +28

High Schools  

Carlsbad                                   812                         812                             0

Source: Calif. Dept. of Education