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Diocese of Sacramento |
API
and the Catholic Schools
The State of California has just released the second Academic Performance Index (API) results which ranks government (public) schools in California. The API assigns a numerical rank from one to ten (indicating rank from the lowest 10% to the top 10%) to each givernment elementary and secondary school. The API results are based on student achievement on a single, standardized, multiple choice, basic skills test: the modified SAT9 test, given in the Spring.
Private schools (including Catholic schools) are not included in this listing. The API is a political ranking of government schools that enables the legislature to give additional state money to schools. Just as state funding is only available to government schools, so too is the ranking. Government school teachers and principals will be given additional cash awards if their schools move up in the API rankings. This is a powerful incentive to raise test scores. Ever wonder what is being left out in the race to improve test scores?
Even if we could be included in the API, we would choose not to be included for a variety of reasons:
- The state exam contains a number of questions that are not included in the standard SAT9 exam. These questions are proprietary to the State of California, Department of Education, and may not be used by any schools other than state-sponsored, government-run schools. Our standardized test, given in the fall, is not the same exam as the one given to government schools in the spring. The test results can not be compared because they are not the same tests.
- Our standardized test is given for the purpose of diagnosis and improvement of instruction. We use the results to improve the curriculum and learning experiences of the children. A diagnostic test is an individual student measurement and should not be used to compare students. At best it is a snapshot of an individual student at one point in time. Think of the photographs of a single child. Put together, they show a picture of growth. But to use a single photo to compare one child with another? Have you ever had a bad hair day? Sometimes students have bad test days. Or perhaps the student excels at essay tests, but does poorly on multiple-choice.
- The API is based solely on a single, multiple-choice exam. It does not include things such as art, music, sports, the quality of the school's library, the ability of students to use computers and other technologies, the dropout rate, the number or percentage of students graduating from high school that go on to college, etc. We feel that these are also important considerations when parents choose a school for their children.
- There is no measure of writing and other communications skills on the modified SAT9 whose results are used for the API. We feel that the ability to communicate with other people is a valuable skill in the 21st century.
- Think of your own child and your neighbor's child. Can you compare the two families on the basis of which child got an A in math during the first grading period? If the two children go to different schools, is one school better because that child got a A? Does it matter if one child is more interested in/better at math and the other child is better at writing? We think it does.
- The API does have a second rating - one comparing similar schools. This way small rural schools are compared to small rural schools, inner city schools are compared to inner city schools. It is possible to rank 1 (bottom 10%) in the state listing, but 10 (top 10%) in the comparison listing. How helpful is it to know that a public school is among the best of the worse schools?
We applaud the attempt by the state to improve the quality of education in the government schools. We hope that the API is expanded to include many more measurements of student progress. Until such time, however, we feel that the API ranking gives parents very little information with which to compare government schools.
"Considering
the special age group they are working with, primary schools
should try to create a community school climate that
reproduces, as far as possible, the warm and intimate
atmosphere of family life." The Religious Dimension of
Education in a Catholic School, #40, The Congregation
for Catholic Education, Rome, 1988