Page One

Fourteen of Berkeley’s 15 public schools scored higher on the state’s Academic Performance Index (API) standardized tests last year than the year before, but the laggard—Rosa Parks Elementary School—had the most to lose and may now face a major administrative shakeup. 

Rosa Parks is already in year three of a process for schools that have failed to make adequate progress on standardized tests, set forth under President Bush’s No Child Left Behind Act. 

The scores released Friday by the California Department of Education may mean that the school will enter year four of the process, which calls for the district to develop a plan to overhaul the school. 

News was better for other Berkeley schools. Nine schools (64 percent) met their performance targets, and four others improved their scores without reaching their target scores. Rosa Parks regressed and Berkeley High School did not have a valid base from which to compare this year’s scores because new tests for high school students were incorporated into the API. 

By contrast, 78 percent of schools across the state met their targets, however this is misleading because Berkeley students annually outscore students across the state making their targets more difficult to reach. 

The API combines results from a nationwide test, the CAT/6, the California Standards Test in English Language Arts, Math and Social Sciences and the high school exit exam. 

Schools receive a score ranging from 200 to 1,000, with 800 as the statewide goal. 

Four Berkeley schools surpassed 800: the Emerson, Jefferson, John Muir and Oxford Elementary schools. Last year, only Emerson broke 800.  

The number of Berkeley schools that met state growth targets increased for the first time since 2000 when the API growth measures were implemented. 

Last year only four schools met growth targets, compared to five in 2001 and 12 the year before. 

Scores for racial subgroups and poor students improved this year as well. District-wide scores for African Americans improved 20 points to 609, Asians improved 6 points to 786, Latinos improved 30 points to 657, whites improved 10 points to 870 and socioeconomically disadvantaged students improved 21 points to 629. 

“I’m just very impressed with the areas of growth in our school,” said Board of Education Member Shirley Issel. “Some areas raise concern but there is a lot of basis for optimism.” 

To meet its targets, a school must improve its score by 5 percent of the difference between its previous API and the state target of 800. Also, the racial and economically disadvantaged subgroups must raise their scores to at least 80 percent of the school’s overall goal. 

Of the four schools to score above 800, only Jefferson Elementary failed to reach its targets because African American students at the school fared worse than the previous year.  

Schools that met their targets but failed to break 800 included Leconte Elementary, Malcolm X Elementary, Thousand Oaks Elementary, Longfellow Arts and Technology Magnet, Willard Middle School and Washington Elementary. 

Washington is in year two of the process for underachieving schools after falling short in the socioeconomically disadvantaged category last year. Administration officials were not available to comment if the improved scores will free the school from the state’s underachiever list.  

Rosa Parks faces a dire situation. After showing dramatic gains last year—just barely failing to meet one target—the school’s overall score this year dropped 20 basis points to 653. Among the school’s ethnic groups, only Latinos improved, rising 14 points to 610. African Americans dropped 60 points to 526, whites fell two points to 838 and socioeconomically disadvantaged students dropped 14 points to 570. No other subgroup comprised a statistically significant segment of the student body. 

Last year, the school raised its API score 49 points to 673, far exceeding its nine-point target but failing to reach its target for disadvantaged students by one basis point. 

That comparatively minor failure thrust the school into year three of No Child Left Behind, requiring the district to provide tutoring to struggling students and giving parents the opportunity to switch schools. The district also had discretion to replace school staff, appoint outside consultants or extend the school day, but instead choose to train all school teachers in a new teaching method also offered to teachers at other schools. 

API is the key component of Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP)—the yardstick used by the state to measure a school’s progress. Assuming that Rosa Parks now fails to meet its AYP goals, it will enter year four of the process for underachieving schools. That will require the district to develop a plan for alternative governance, which could mean reopening as a charter school, contracting a private educational group to run the school or a state takeover.