A.V.'S BRANCH TOPS ON API FEWER AREA SCHOOLS SURPASS STATE AVERAGE.

Byline: Karen Maeshiro Staff Writer

PALMDALE - Twenty-four of 85 schools in the Antelope Valley scored above the state average in student achievement rankings released Tuesday, down from 33 a year ago.

Edwards Air Force Base schools, along with schools in the Acton-Agua Dulce Unified, Hughes-Elizabeth Lakes Union, and Westside Union school districts posted the top Academic Performance Index scores.

The highest local score was 813 at Edwards' Irving L. Branch Elementary School, the only valley school to top the state's goal of 800.

Five schools in the Keppel, Lancaster and Palmdale school districts scored in the bottom 20 percent of schools statewide. Last year, six schools scored that low.

``We're very pleased with our scores, and while we see Branch is the highest-ranking in the Antelope Valley, we're real pleased that three out of our five schools, when compared with similar schools, are in the 10th band,'' said Mike Summerbell, assistant superintendent for educational services.

``We've got excellent teachers, excellent students and a lot of parent support. Because we have that strong parent and school relationship, it helps our students pay attention to getting good grades and learning the material,'' Summerbell said.

Created by a 1999 state law, the API is designed to show how California schools rate against each other. Each school received a single score - between 200 and 1,000 - based on the school's composite test scores.

The median score for all elementary schools in California this year was 675, up from 629 last year. The median score for middle schools was 657, up from 633, and for high schools, 636, up from 620.

State officials have set 800 as the target they would like all schools to reach. This year, 17 percent of schools in the state attained API scores of 800 or higher, up from 12 percent a year ago.

A second set of rankings shows how individual schools compare with all others throughout California. A school that receives a rank of 9, for example, scored at or above 90 percent of all California schools for the same grade level.

Conversely a rank of 1 means a school scored in the bottom 10 percent of schools in the state.

A third score rates the school against others statewide with similar characteristics, such as the wealth or poverty of its students' families, the amount of education their parents have and the percentage of its teachers who are fully credentialed.

Finally, each school receives a target score state officials want it to achieve on the next index. Schools in the bottom 20 percent could face sanctions for failing to hit their targets over a three-year period.

Last year, six schools scored in the bottom 20 percent. They were Linda Verde in the Lancaster School District; Tamarisk and Yucca in the Palmdale School District; Eastside Elementary in the Eastside Union School District, and Mojave Elementary and Joshua Middle schools in the Mojave Unified School District.

This year, the lowest-performing schools were Antelope School in the Keppel Union School District; Linda Verde School and Piute Intermediate in the Lancaster School District; and Tamarisk and Yucca schools in the Palmdale School District.

Palmdale district officials noted, however, that their state rankings improve markedly when compared against similar schools, hitting 8s, 9s and 10s. Tamarisk School, for example, scored a similar schools rank of 9.

``It shows that we are doing pretty much what we need to do,'' said Mark Pospisil, Palmdale's director of assessment and accountability. ``Our schools have a lot of individual programs and are working hard to boost student performance, not just test scores.''

Other schools that meet their goals will be eligible for extra money from the state.

Last year, two elementary schools in the Muroc Joint Unified School District were the only Antelope Valley schools to hit a score of 9.

This year, Branch Elementary School repeated with a score of 9 and the highest API score of 813, while Forbes Avenue Elementary School dropped one point to an 8.

In the Palmdale and Lancaster school districts, the two largest, all schools except for one posted huge increases in their API scores, but their statewide rankings either stayed the same or went down by a single point.

The exceptions were Chaparral and Tamarisk schools in the Palmdale School District, which each went up by one point.

Pospisil said many districts in the state, like Palmdale, showed significant growth.

``Because growth was consistent throughout the state, those ranks will be consistent. We are moving with the schools that did well,'' Pospisil said.

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Box: API Results