topLBUSDschools2013

topLBUSDschools2013 

California’s Department of Education’s annual school rankings were released last week, showing how Long Beach Unified School District campuses compare to others in the state.

12 of LBUSD’s 81 included schools–including two middle schools and one high school–placed at or near the top 10% of schools statewide; only six fell in the bottom 10%. Nearly half have achieved state target scores of 800 or more.

The comparative rankings are based on schools’ Academic Performance Index, a number between 200 and 1000 that is determined through students’ standardized test scores each year.

API gains and losses–based off STAR testing held each May–are posted every October, but the rankings culled from those numbers are not released until the following May. Results from tests taken in the last month, for example, will be released later this year.

{loadposition latestnews}In addition to ranking all California schools against one another, the Department of Education also includes a “similar schools ranking” that compares schools against others with similar demographic characteristics, educational challenges and opportunities including language and socioeconomic variables.

28 District schools ranked at or near the top 10% in the similar schools ranking compared with only three that fell in the bottom 10%. New City School, a charter K-8, and Beach High, a new continuation school, were ranked in the bottom 10% both statewide and when compared with similar schools, though their API scores have risen overall.

Schools that scored at or in the top 10% on both statewide and similar-schools comparisons include Carver Elementary, Gant Elementary, Kettering Elementary, Lowell Elementary, Naples Elementary, Newcomb Academy, Rogers Middle School and California Academy of Mathematics and Science, the latter of which was recently honored by Newsweek as having some of the higest SAT scores in the state.

Rankings for for Millikan High–which has one of the higher API scores of all District high schools–were not available for this year due to evidence of cheating among students.

Despite cutting $330 million and 1000 jobs from its budget in the last four years, the majority of District API scores have shown growth in the last few years and multiple schools have raked in honors from the Washington Post, U.S. News and World Report as well as the State Superintendent. 

To view all LBUSD API scores and rankings, visit the California Department of Education website. 

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