The City’s public schools are not keeping up with federal mandates established under the federal No Child Left Behind Act, despite the fact that its overall scores on standardized tests have been higher than the state’s for eight years in a row.
Each year, schools and districts are given a numerical ranking, from a low of 200 to a high of 1,000, that reflects students’ test performance — with a state goal of reaching a rank of 800 or more. The number is called the Academic Performance Index, or API.
This year the San Francisco Unified School District was given an API of 777. The state API was 755.
However, nearly half of the district’s schools — 48 percent — did not meet federal benchmarks, called “Adequately Yearly Progress,” required under NCLB.
Under the federal goal, elementary and middle schools needed to show that at least 46 percent of students are proficient in English and 47.5 percent are proficient in math. The percentage mandates for high schools are 44.5 for English and 43.5 for math. Under NCLB, districts are expected to have 100 percent of students at proficiency, or grade level, by 2014. In recent years, California’s schools have been expected to boost their proficiency percentages by about 10 points every year, according to state officials.
Schools that do not reach Adequate Yearly Progress goals for two years in a row are designated as “Program Improvement” schools and face increasing sanctions every year thereafter, eventually facing the possibility of staff overhauls, new governance or restructuring.
“That’s the historic rub,” State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell said. “Now that we have this dramatically increasing bar, the reality is it’s going to be more difficult for our schools.”
Officials with the San Francisco Unified School District said they’ve tried overhauling school leaders and staff in the past, and that changing the curriculum is the best way to improve student test scores.
This year the district’s most notable success story is at Malcolm X Academy, which was in its fifth year of Program Improvement.
The elementary school of about 120 students was showered with more hands-on resources, which have proven to be more effective in the past, school district spokeswoman Gentle Blythe said.
Practicing mathematicians were brought in to teach alongside math teachers, showing how math applies to real-life situations, for example.
The district also had a program that helped parents become more involved in their children’s academics, among several other “interventions,” Blythe said.
“We tried that approach of taking all the teachers and changing them entirely, but that has not been proven to be a long-term effective strategy,’’ Blythe said. “Different schools have different needs.”
Last year 28 of San Francisco’s public schools were designated as Program Improvement schools; 31 are on the list this year. Malcolm X was the only school that got off the list, meaning it met proficiency for two years in a row.
Two other SFUSD schools that had notable score increases are E.R. Taylor and Robert Louis Stevenson elementary schools, which were named “Blue Ribbon” schools by the U.S. Department of Education.
SFUSD ranks higher than overall state scores
The Accountability Progress Index, or API, is a number assigned to California schools that falls between 200 and 1,000 that reflects student performances on English and math tests. The state goal is an API of 800.
table, td { border: 1px solid #ccc; }
| San Francisco test results | ||||
| How San Francisco public schools fared in 2009 compared with 2008 on the Academic Performance Index, the state accountability model, which has a performance target of 800 for each school | ||||
| Separate from the state goal, federal targets under the No Child Left Behind Act require that students in all subgroups reach set proficiency levels on standardized test scores in math and English. | ||||
| Name | 2008 | 2009 | Change | Met federal benchmark |
| Elementary schools | ||||
| Alamo Elementary School | 902 | 913 | 11 | Yes |
| Alvarado Elementary School | 826 | 815 | -11 | No |
| Argonne Elementary School | 873 | 869 | -4 | Yes |
| Bryant Elementary School | 664 | 667 | 3 | No |
| Buena Vista Annex School | 642 | 738 | 96 | Yes |
| Carmichael Elementary School | 747 | 751 | 4 | No |
| Carver Elementary School | 672 | 667 | -5 | No |
| Chavez (Cesar) Elementary School | 647 | 656 | 9 | No |
| Chin (John Yehall) Elementary School | 869 | 872 | 3 | Yes |
| Chinese Education Center School | 603 | 597 | -6 | No |
| Clarendon Elementary School | 929 | 950 | 21 | Yes |
| Cleveland Elementary School | 656 | 683 | 27 | No |
| Cobb (William L.) Elementary School | 726 | 700 | -26 | No |
| Commodore Sloat Elementary School | 854 | 872 | 18 | Yes |
| Creative Arts Charter School | 779 | 765 | -14 | No |
| Drew (Charles R.) Elementary School | 623 | 667 | 44 | Yes |
| El Dorado Elementary School | 724 | 691 | -33 | No |
| Fairmount Elementary School | 720 | 687 | -33 | No |
| Feinstein (Dianne) Elementary School | 840 | 853 | 13 | Yes |
| Flynn Elementary School | 697 | 668 | -29 | No |
| Francis Scott Key Elementary School | 861 | 878 | 17 | Yes |
| Garfield Elementary School | 867 | 812 | -55 | Yes |
| Glen Park Elementary School | 794 | 784 | -10 | Yes |
| Grattan Elementary School | 787 | 822 | 35 | Yes |
| Guadalupe Elementary School | 776 | 803 | 27 | No |
| Harte (Bret) Elementary School | 623 | 613 | -10 | No |
| Hillcrest Elementary School | 671 | 679 | 8 | No |
| Jefferson Elementary School | 870 | 882 | 12 | Yes |
| Lafayette Elementary School | 853 | 862 | 9 | Yes |
| Lakeshore Elementary School | 830 | 812 | -18 | Yes |
| Lau (Gordon J.) Elementary School | 836 | 830 | -6 | Yes |
| Lawton K-8 School | 914 | 912 | -2 | Yes |
| Lilienthal K-8 School | 892 | 913 | 21 | Yes |
| Longfellow Elementary School | 825 | 802 | -23 | No |
| Malcolm X Academy | 592 | 692 | 100 | Yes |
| Marshall Elementary School | 706 | 746 | 40 | Yes |
| McCoppin Elementary School | 813 | 827 | 14 | Yes |
| McKinley Elementary School | 785 | 810 | 25 | Yes |
| Milk (Harvey) Civil Rights Elementary School | 772 | 783 | 11 | Yes |
| Miraloma Elementary School | 825 | 851 | 26 | Yes |
| Mission Education Center School | 385 | 372 | -13 | No |
| Monroe Elementary School | 783 | 803 | 20 | No |
| Moscone Elementary School | 856 | 844 | -12 | Yes |
| Muir (John) Elementary School | 634 | 592 | -42 | No |
| New Traditions Elementary School | 785 | 807 | 22 | Yes |
| Ortega (Jose) Elementary School | 808 | 782 | -26 | Yes |
| Parker (Jean) Elementary School | 846 | 832 | -14 | Yes |
| Parks (Rosa) Elementary School | 743 | 713 | -30 | No |
| Peabody (George) Elementary School | 859 | 873 | 14 | Yes |
| Redding Elementary School | 786 | 794 | 8 | Yes |
| Revere (Paul) Elementary School | 633 | 623 | -10 | No |
| Rooftop K-8 School | 858 | 877 | 19 | Yes |
| San Francisco Community K-8 School | 802 | 804 | 2 | Yes |
| Sanchez Elementary School | 683 | 691 | 8 | No |
| Serra Elementary School | 765 | * | * | No |
| Sheridan Elementary School | 810 | 833 | 23 | Yes |
| Sherman Elementary School | 891 | 868 | -23 | Yes |
| Spring Valley Elementary School | 833 | 823 | -10 | Yes |
| Starr King Elementary School | 697 | 705 | 8 | No |
| Stevenson Elementary School | 924 | 921 | -3 | Yes |
| Sunnyside Elementary School | 750 | 812 | 62 | Yes |
| Sunset Elementary School | 873 | 888 | 15 | Yes |
| Sutro Elementary School | 837 | 864 | 27 | Yes |
| Taylor Elementary School | 853 | 865 | 12 | Yes |
| Tenderloin Community Elementary School | 711 | 759 | 48 | Yes |
| Ulloa Elementary School | 903 | 911 | 8 | Yes |
| Visitacion Valley Elementary School | 835 | 823 | -12 | Yes |
| Webster (Daniel) Elementary School | 612 | 645 | 33 | Yes |
| West Portal Elementary School | 907 | 900 | -7 | Yes |
| Yick Wo Elementary School | 865 | 871 | 6 | Yes |
| Yu (Alice Fong) K-8 School | 948 | 951 | 3 | Yes |
| Middle schools | ||||
| A.P. Giannini Middle School | 870 | 869 | -1 | No |
| Aptos Middle School | 792 | 840 | 48 | Yes |
| Brown, Jr. (Willie L.) Elementary | 549 | 536 | -13 | No |
| Everett Middle School | 591 | 647 | 56 | No |
| Excelsior Middle School | 608 | * | * | * |
| Francisco Middle School | 680 | 666 | -14 | No |
| Herbert Hoover Middle School | 818 | 833 | 15 | No |
| Horace Mann Middle School | 592 | 623 | 31 | No |
| James Denman Middle School | 698 | 690 | -8 | No |
| James Lick Middle School | 693 | 726 | 33 | No |
| KIPP Bayview Academy | 728 | 757 | 29 | Yes |
| KIPP San Francisco Bay Academy | 857 | 832 | -25 | Yes |
| King (Martin Luther) Middle School | 704 | 707 | 3 | No |
| Marina Middle School | 790 | 792 | 2 | No |
| Presidio Middle School | 865 | 875 | 10 | No |
| Roosevelt Middle School | 850 | 873 | 23 | Yes |
| Visitacion Valley Middle School | 663 | 652 | -11 | No |
| </td> | ||||
| High schools | ||||
| Abraham Lincoln High School | 764 | 751 | -13 | No |
| Balboa High School | 725 | 747 | 22 | No |
| Burton (Phillip & Sala) High School | 662 | 615 | -47 | No |
| City Arts & Tech Charter High School | 640 | 610 | -30 | No |
| Downtown High (Continuation) School | 422 | * | * | * |
| Galileo High School | 742 | 757 | 15 | No |
| Gateway Charter High School | 718 | 743 | 25 | Yes |
| George Washington High School | 768 | 785 | 17 | No |
| Independence High (Alternative) School | 519 | 500 | -19 | No |
| International Studies Academy | 601 | 590 | -11 | No |
| June Jordan School for Equity | 521 | 504 | -17 | No |
| Leadership Charter High School | 641 | 618 | -23 | No |
| Life Learning Charter Academy | 571 | 582 | 11 | Yes |
| Lowell High School | 950 | 949 | -1 | Yes |
| Marshall (Thurgood) High School | 629 | 575 | -54 | No |
| Metropolitan Arts and Technology Charter High | 637 | 629 | -8 | No |
| Mission High School | 545 | 555 | 10 | No |
| Newcomer (Limited English Proficient) High School | * | * | * | No |
| OConnell (John A.) High School | 566 | 550 | -16 | No |
| Raoul Wallenberg Traditional High School | 675 | 744 | 69 | Yes |
| School of the Arts High School | 747 | 781 | 34 | No |
| Wells (Ida B.) Alternative High School | 497 | 453 | -44 | No |
| * Scores not available | ||||
| Source: California Department of Education | ||||
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