Bay Area High Schools Modestly Improved Performance Last Year, New Bay Area Council Study Finds.

News Editors/Education Writers

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 27, 2003

County-by-County Variations; Reading Scores Below National

Average; Math Scores Slightly Above National Average;

More Take SAT; Less Dropouts

The Bay Area Council, in collaboration with GreatSchools, today announced the findings of the fourth annual Bay Area Education Performance Profile measuring performance of the public high schools in the nine-county Bay Area over the last five years. This edition of the Education Performance Profile finds marginal improvements in basic skills, college preparedness and dropout rates of the Bay Area's high school students over the past five years. The report also found large differences in absolute education performance levels among districts and counties within the Bay Area.

The two organizations developed the Education Performance Profile to assist parents, educators, public officials, employers and civic groups in tracking education performance in the Bay Area, as well as to measure the impact of new public policy and programs designed to improve education performance.

"Although test results and whether performance is getting better or worse are empirically interesting, the results of the Education Performance Profile also have important economic ramifications," stated Sunne Wright McPeak, the president and chief executive officer of the Bay Area Council. "The Bay Area Council, as a business group, is interested in regional educational performance not only because today's students will become tomorrow's workers and business leaders, but also because today's quality employees -- as parents -- are drawn to regions with good school systems. This year's Education Performance Profile finds small improvements, continuing a five-year trend. For both long-term and short-term reasons the pace of improvement must be accelerated if the Bay Area is to remain economically competitive."

"Parents, educators, public officials and employers must work together to hasten better education performance, and businesses can offer help," said Larry Fogli, Ph.D., the president and chief executive officer of People Focus. "That is why employers and educators will be meeting together for the second Bay Area Business-Education Summit on Thursday, February 27, in Redwood City, which will be co-chaired by Darl Davidson, president of the U.S. West Region for EDS's Operations Solutions sector and Dr. Norma Rees, the president of California State University, Hayward."

Basic Reading and Math Skills

The Education Performance Profile finds that reading scores for the region as a whole and all counties exceed the state average (based on Stanford Achievement Test, Ninth Edition (Stanford 9) results). However, reading scores for the region are below the national average, though there is a slight trend toward improvement. One explanation for why the Bay Area and California score below the national average in reading is that many counties have a substantial percentage of students who are English Language Learners. These demographics may cause lower scores on the reading test than the math test.

High school students in the region do relatively well in basic math; 60 percent scored above the national average on the Stanford 9 in 2002. Math scores in all nine counties exceed the state average and all but one exceeds the national average.

The variations throughout the region discovered by the Education Performance Profile are of particular note. In both math and reading scores, there is a wide disparity across the Bay Area between the highest scoring county and the lowest scoring county. Marin County has the highest math scores in the region, with 69 percent of students scored above the national average, followed by San Francisco, where 65 percent of students scored at this level. Solano County has the lowest math achievement in the region with 50 percent scoring above the national average and 50 percent scoring below it. The disparity is most clearly seen in reading scores, where the highest county (Marin) had 60 percent of students scoring above the national average in 2002, while the lowest county (Solano) had only 38 percent.

"Providing students with good reading and math skills is the most fundamental function of the education system, and improving these basic skills has been an important goal of recent reform efforts," said Darl Davidson of EDS and co-chairman of the Bay Area Business-Education Summit on February 27. "Preparing students for post-secondary education is another fundamental role of high schools. A trend toward better college preparedness would benefit individual students and the regional economy."

College Aspirations and Preparation, Surprising Patterns

A trend toward better college preparedness in the Bay Area does not appear to be happening, nor does it appear that the large disparities among districts are shrinking. Over the past five years, the percentage of students taking the Scholastic Achievement Test (SAT) college entrance exam has increased slightly. Unfortunately, there has been no appreciable change in the percentage of seniors who scored above 1000 (and thus were well prepared to attend a four-year college).

SAT participation varies widely across the region, and in some districts only 25 percent students take the SAT, while in others more than 90 percent take the test. Assuming most potential college applicants take the SAT, students in different parts of the Bay Area have very different college aspirations. For the past few years, Piedmont City Unified has had the highest proportion of students taking the SAT in the region, followed by Palo Alto Unified, Los Gatos-Saratoga Unified and Acalanes High School District (in central Contra Costa County).

The pattern of SAT test taking is somewhat surprising. In some urban districts with more students in poverty, substantial percentages of students take the SAT. Oakland Unified, for example, has testing rates above the regional average (about 57 percent). San Francisco Unified's SAT testing rate 70 percent, is actually above that of Pleasanton, where only 60 percent of seniors took the SAT in 2002. Pittsburg, Dixon and Cloverdale had the lowest testing rates, where only about a quarter of 12th grade students take the SAT.

When differences in test taking and scores are combined, disparities among districts in levels of college preparedness are immense. In Pittsburg, for example, fewer than 10 percent of seniors take the SAT and score above average. In Piedmont City Unified, which has the highest rate of test taking along with the highest average scores, more than 80 percent of seniors take the test and score above average.

Dropout Rate Differences Among Districts

High dropout rates leave thousands of young adults with poor skills and lower the quality of the entry-level labor force. Schools recognize this problem and try to reduce their dropout rates through a variety of programs and services. Dropout rates have declined in the Bay Area as a whole for two consecutive years and by two percent since 1997. In the past five years, dropout rates have decreased in all counties in the Bay Area, with the exception of San Mateo and Sonoma.

Granted that the current measure is imperfect, this trend counters the theory some educators have professed that high stakes standardized tests would increase dropout rates. While this fear has not been realized, the dropout rate is an important indicator to watch because students must pass the High School Exit Exam beginning with the class of 2004.

Among Bay Area counties, San Francisco has the highest dropout rates, while Napa has the lowest rates. This pattern has remained unchanged over the past five years. There are large differences among districts throughout the region, even with districts that are in close proximity. For example, the district with the highest dropout rate in the region -- Oakland Unified -- appears to lose nearly 20 percent of its high school students over four years, while some of its urban neighbors, including Hayward and Emery Unified, appear to lose fewer than 10 percent during the same.

"Over five years there have been incremental improvements in dropout rates, basic skills and college access," said Bill Jackson, the president and chief executive officer of GreatSchools. "However, these indicators all show significant room for improvement at the high school level. We hope that this report inspires questions and discussion among parents, educators, and community leaders. By exploring these issues districts may gain valuable insight how to improve their instruction."

About the Bay Area Education Performance Profile

The Bay Area Council and GreatSchools developed the Bay Area Education Performance Profile to assist parents, educators, public officials, employers and civic groups in tracking education performance in the Bay Area, as well as to measure the impact of new public policy and programs designed to improve education performance. The Bay Area Council compiles the survey annually.

Data and Methodology

All data used in this report are from the California Department of Education. The first section of the report provides information about all school districts in the state, Bay Area and the nine counties for: (1) Academic Performance Index (API) results; (2) Stanford Achievement Test (Stanford 9) scores; (3) dropout rates; (4) SAT performance; and (5) student demographics. The second section shows similar data broken down by county, with results reported for all school districts with high schools. Districts without high schools are only included in the API charts. Scales on all charts of the same type are the same to facilitate quick visual comparisons among all the counties and districts.

Bay Area Council

The Bay Area Council is a business-sponsored, CEO-led, public policy organization founded in 1945 to promote economic prosperity and quality of life in the region. It represents major employers in the region and mobilizes business leadership to address issues related to the regional economy, including education and workforce preparation. The work of the Bay Area Council on education performance metrics was originally supported in part by a grant from The David and Lucile Packard Foundation. This fourth edition of the Bay Area Education Performance Profile is supported in part by a grant from the Stupski Family Fund, a Donor Advised Fund of The San Francisco Foundation. For additional information, please visit the Bay Area Council's web site at www.bayareacouncil.org.

GreatSchools.net

GreatSchools.net is a non-profit organization whose mission is to provide parents with the information they need to choose schools, support their children's education and improve schools. GreatSchools.net provides and maintains its free online guide to K-12 schools across the country at www.greatschools.net.