Wow. Looks good, especially in Conejo. Of course, just think how much more we could do if we funded our schools at more than 43rd in the Nation. (Acording to Education Week Magazine).

Tell how additional funding will improve the scores.

Cathy Carlson from TO here: Here are my comment that I posted under this article in the Star's online version.
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Next time I wish the Star
would explain the deciles better. Every year the State
divides all the scores into 10 equal groups. So, no
matter what, there will always be 1 out of every 10
schools getting a "10". It's not a rarity and it does
not mean that all those schools are academically
excellent, since many "10's" are pretty close to the
799 mark for failing to make minimum goals.

A "10" decile rank does NOT mean that they scored in
the empirical top 10%, which would really be 920 or
higher. It does mean that compared to the rest of
California, for that year, those students ended up in
the 10th, or highest group.

Want to know the bottom cut-offs for the 10th decile?
The good news is that has gotten higher since the
first year when some high schools got a "10" with
scores of 720, or 80 points below the minimum! OK, for
2004-2005 (reported today, March 21, 2006) here are
the generous cut-offs for our weak public schools to
be eligible for a California "10". (Brace
yourselves--they are ALL well below the real 90%, or
920 points. Every 8 points equals 1%. 800 points is
75%, as it starts at 200.)

High Schools: 807 or 75%
Middle Schools: 846 or 80%
Elementary schools: 881 or 85%

Now, for an explanation of the "similar schools"
ranking. This tells parents if they are getting their
money's worth out of their real estate dollar.
Anything less than a 10 or 9 means trouble. Scores of
2 and 4 like Meadows School and Wildwood in the CVUSD
means that the real estate is over-valued, among other
things. This is simplistic, but accurate. There are 12
factors that go into the similar school ranking. I had
a long talk with the designer of the ranking system, a
PhD from Taiwan. She has made changes this year in
some of the factors that go into the evaluation. Feel
free to call her. She will tell you that only 100
schools from similar demographics are evaluated for
every school. So, this doesn't mean that your school
is the best in the state if, for example, you get a 10
in similar school, but only scored in the 77%
percentile. It just means that compared to 100 of your
peers, your school and 9 others did equally great, and
you deserve congratulations.

So, congratulations to those schools which scored 920
and above, and also to those that ranked high in both
deciles and similar schools. And I hope this clears up
some confusion. Believe me, you aren't going to get
the straight scoop from your PTA, a union rep, your
District, or your principal. Call Sacramento if you
need further explanation. Or call me, and I'll be glad
to come talk to a parents' group. It is complicated,
but with patience, you can understand this. Just don't
ask an "educrat" to explain it! All you'll get is
"spin"!
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That's all I'm going to share on this subject, Tim. I'm not going to get back on tomorrow to read more comments, so I apologize in advance to anyone nice who might want more info from me on this blog. You'll have to call me directly or write to me and I'll be happy to talk to you about it. Any rude person who prefers to put his "spin" on this and insult the messenger can do so here, if Tim allows it. But I won't waste my time reading or responding to such negative people. I've posted the truth and said my peace. I'm out of here for now.

Cathy here with one more thought: Here is the link to the API score for my hometown, Los Altos in Santa Clara County. This is what public education in California is capable of. This small district has all 10s and 10s and all scores well over the 90th percentile of 920. Both middle schools have been 1,2,or 3 in the state numerous times since the API began. Ventura County needs this reality check. We do pretty well considering our demographics, but don't ever try to tell me that "99% of schools would love to have scores like the CVUSD", as a certain someone has tried to say. Teachers in Los Altos would be called in for counseling if their students had scores as low as the CVUSD. Remember, 4 schools in the CVUSD failed to make the state minimum this year, 7 last year, and 11 the year before. That is nothing to brag about. I'm glad they are doing better, however. I think exposing the truth about the API will only help, not hurt our schools.

http://api.cde.ca.gov/APIBase2006/2005Base_Dst.aspx?allcds=4369518

Thanks for presenting so many facts. This is truly the only way to understand the data. And thanks for taking the time to put so much information into each of your blogs. This is really going to set some people reeling! I doubt that 1 in 20 parents really understand the decile rankings. You put it all out there for everyone to see.

Maybe Cathy should move back to Los Altos since she was so much happier there. Jerre at the last school board meeting Cathy claimed there were 700 teachers in Conejo and 20,000 students. There are 1,100 teachers and 22,500 students, so trust her "facts" with a grain of salt.

The test scores are improving as we demand more of our students. But that approach will level off if we can't find better ways to motivate the students.

The US economy rewards motivated people with higher incomes. They have more motivated children, who then do better in school. So why does it surprise us that higher income areas have higher test scores?

The educational establishment is made up of educated people - almost all with college degrees. We assume that all people see and understand that education is crucial to sucess. They don't. For numerous reasons - cultural, historical or sociatal - many do not put as much emphasis on education as we expect. And without the support from home the education task is much harder.

To expect teachers and the education system alone to overcome this is unreasonable. It must be done by the country as a whole. Otherwise we will end up with a country of haves and have nots - not a long term stable society.

Greg,
Excellent comments, I could not agree more. I remember a Board meeting when you said something to the affect that test scores being low at Parkview had more to do with the background of the students then with the teachers. I agree, I think we could take the teachers from Wood Ranch and switch them with Parkview teachers and that API scores would not then "swap". All of our Simi teachers are hard working and extremely dedicated. I remember the Park View presentation mentioned a large number of students coming and going during the year which also complicated instruction. Schools like Park View need different interventions to help student achievement then a school like Hollow Hills for example.