UPDATED 4:51PM | After a deeper look into the entire District’s API scores, we expand on our previous reportage to include information on those schools that did not meet their goals or increase their API score.
Though 53 percent of Long Beach area schools met all of their academic targets for state standardized testing scores, it is clear that there are others that are still struggling. Fifteen percent of schools increased their API but did not meet their target (indicating improvement, but not enough) and one-third of District schools either remained the same, declined or lost points on their score.
With only one middle school (Washignton) and one high school (Poly) not meeting their schoolwide academic targets, however, the majority of the schools in the latter category are elementaries, which did not receive additional educational programming last year like the middle and high schools did.
On a positive note, only three schools in the entire District–New City School, Jordan High and Cabrillo Hig–had API sores below 700 this year and all three had increased their APIs by at least 25 points.
Some schools whose API scores dropped significantly this year were:
- Edison Elementary, -31
- Lafayette Elementary, -63
- Harte Elementary, -41
- Roosevelt Elementary, -26
- Longfellow Elementary, -23
- McKinley Elementary, -34
- Burnett Elementary, -37
All of Long Beach Unified’s individual school scores are available at the California Department of Education website.
ORIGINAL 11:15AM| The Long Beach Unified School District recently received some good news from the California Department of Education: results from its students’ most recent round of state standardized testing show that more than half of Long Beach schools met all of their academic targets last year.
“We again saw a trend of significant, steady gains overall, which is why our districtwide API [the state’s numeric index model which measures student performance] rose another 10 points to 781,” said Christopher J. Steinhauser, superintendent of schools at LBUSD, in a statement. “We continue to provide targeted support that is making a positive difference for students. Our employees, parents and many community partners should be commended for a job well done.”
Over half of the schools within the district met also their sub-target groups—groups identified by race, socioeconomic status, and the such—an increase of 9 percent over last year.
These increases are attributed to various aspects of educational programming.
Within the middle schools, where self-contained classrooms—that is, students stay with a single teacher throughout the day instead of the more common class-to-class schedule—and placing students in more college prep courses like algebra.
At high schools, an increase in federal funds to help implement more after-school programs (even extending into Saturday for some) have helped better prepare students for exit exams.
LBUSD holds pride in these results not just for the simple fact that academic performance is increasing, but that such performance is progressing under immense budget constraints. In the past four years alone, the district has not only cut some $330 million from its budget but also cut 1,000 jobs.
The schools with the highest gains within their API scores were:
- Hoover, +52
- Lindbergh, +48
- Butler (now Nelson), +46
- Jordan, +44
- Jefferson, +43
- Franklin, +36
- Webster, +32
- Renaissance, +31
- Wilson, +31
- Rogers, +30
- Lindsey, +27
- Cabrillo, +25
- Bixby, +22
- Robinson, +21
- Marshall, +20