UNDERPERFORMERS TRY NEW PLAN FOUR PALMDALE SCHOOLS TAKE STATE FUNDS IN ATTEMPT TO BOOST TEST SCORES.

Byline: KAREN MAESHIRO Staff Writer

PALMDALE -- Four low-performing schools in the Palmdale School District are switching to a school-improvement program that offers more money to boost student performance but also carries penalties if the schools don't meet state targets for increasing pupils' test scores.

Cactus, Golden Poppy, Los Amigos and Summerwind schools had received federal funding for two years under what was supposed to have been a three-year program, but they were told that funding was halted in June.

The schools took up an offer to convert to the state High Priority Schools Grant Program, which will pay $400 per student for two years. That amounts to nearly $1.4million in total funding for the four schools this year.

Unlike the federal program, the High Priority program comes with possible sanctions -- such as greater state oversight and control -- if the schools don't increase their state Academic Performance Index scores by a certain amount in 2005, 2006 and 2007, but school officials said three of the four schools have already met those targets.

``I'm always mindful that I need to be aware if the hurdle is going to be too great for them. Four schools already have satisfied that requirement except for one,'' Assistant Superintendent Betty Stiers said. ``Three already had made the minimum growth that was required. The one that didn't felt they would make the growth. It was not going to be a hurdle for them.''

Under High Priority, the schools must increase their API scores by 10 points over three years and make positive growth in two of the three years that they participate in the program.

Stiers said three of the four schools have had the growth in two of the three years. All the schools except Summerwind increased their API by more than 10 points between 2005 and 2006, records show.

Seven Palmdale district schools received the federal money under the Comprehensive School Reform program.

They were Cactus, Cimarron, Desert Rose, Golden Poppy, Joshua Hills, Los Amigos and Summerwind schools. The state offer to convert to the High Priority program was made to schools in the bottom 20percent of state API rankings, and four of the seven schools qualified to do that.

If the four schools did not switch to the High Priority program, they had the option of getting one more year of funding from the state at a rate of $200 per pupil.

Under High Priority, Cactus will receive $462,000; Golden Poppy, $287,200; Los Amigos, $345,600; and Summerwind, $291,000.

Nine other low-performing schools in the Antelope Valley this year were awarded a total of $450,000 in High Priority funding to develop plans to improve student achievement.

Receiving $50,000 each in planning grants were Douglas and Mojave elementary schools in the Mojave Unified School District; Tierra Bonita Elementary School in the Eastside Union School District; Antelope, Daisy Gibson and Lake Los Angeles elementary schools in the Keppel Union School District; Mariposa School in the Lancaster School District; Desert Willow Intermediate in the Palmdale School District; and Wilsona Achievement Academy in the Wilsona School District.

Once the schools have their plans approved next spring, they will receive funding for the next three years.

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