AREA SCHOOLS HIT API MARKS MOST SHOW NOTABLE IMPROVEMENT.

Byline: Nicholas Grudin Staff Writer

Academic Performance Index reports for schools in Glendale and Burbank were released Tuesday, revealing that the vast majority of the districts' schools have improved their ratings.

In Glendale, 23 out of 28 schools hit their schoolwide targets based on last year's performances. In Burbank, 15 of 16 schools hit their schoolwide targets.

The API, which is used to compare schools statewide, is a weighted combination of scores from the California Standards Test and the Stanford 9. It is a measure that many parents use to assess a given school's quality of education, and school administrators take it very seriously.

``People move into neighborhoods based on this number,'' said Terry Dutton, director of assessment and evaluation for the Glendale Unified School District.

``These schools really care about the scores - the emotion that goes into this is tremendous,'' Dutton said.

Knowing the API's significance, Caroline Braum, Burbank Unified School District's director of student evaluation, was excited to see the results Tuesday.

``As I look at our five-year accomplishment, the schools deserve all manner of praise,'' Braum said.

Since 1998, when the API was introduced, all of the Burbank district's schools have shown significant improvements. Now, all but three of the schools scored more than 700 points, whereas in 1998, not a single school earned a score higher than 700.

``We aligned the curricula to the API content standard, we aligned the books with selected instructional material and then we provided the aligned instruction, and the results of that absolutely show,'' Braum said.

The 800-point mark - out of 1,000 possible - is considered the universal target, at which point the state no longer deems improvement necessary, Dutton said.

The only schools in Burbank that did not score above 700 points were Burbank and Burroughs high schools and Luther Burbank Middle School, which scored 664, 682 and 694, respectively. Those schools have nonetheless improved significantly since the test first came out.

``The improvement is consistent throughout the district,'' Braum said.

The lowest-scoring elementary school in Burbank was Washington at 726, and the highest-scoring was Jefferson, which with a score of 810 was the first Burbank school to reach the state goal.

The lowest-scoring middle school in Burbank, and the only school not to show improvement, was Luther Burbank Middle School.

GUSD showed more variation in its scores throughout the district but had similarly consistent improvement across the board.

In Glendale, many schools scored above 800, but many scored below 700.

Scores ranged from a low of 622 at Glendale High School to a high of 882 at Mountain Avenue Elementary School.

Also scoring 800 points and above were Dunsmore, Fremont, Glenoaks, La Crescenta, Lincoln, Monte Vista, Valley View and Verdugo Woodlands elementary schools and Rosemont Middle School.

Like Burbank, Glendale's high schools and middle schools did not fare as well as the elementary schools overall.

``We're concerned about high schools and middle schools - it's just harder to make changes in secondary schools,'' Dutton said.

Whereas 90 percent of the elementary schools hit their schoolwide targets in GUSD, only 50 percent of the middle and high schools hit their targets.

The API will be transformed next year with the discontinuation of the Stanford 9 test, which in the current system accounts for more than 60 percent of the API calculation.

In the tests given next April and May, the Cat 6 and the High School Exit Exams will replace the Stanford 9.

The California Standards Test will remain a factor for the 2003 APIs.

In years past, schools that showed improvements were eligible for financial rewards as part of the Governor's Performance Award program. No money is available for the program this year, although eligible schools may be rewarded in the future.

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Source: California Department of Education