State nixes API’s while incorporating Common Core
Nicole Shine covers schools for the Daily Pilot, Huntington Beach Independent and Coastline Pilot. Before joining Times Community News, she covered county government and the city of Newport Beach for the Orange County Register. Her work has appeared in the OC Weekly and Pacific Standard magazine. Nicole grew up in Waco, Texas, and graduated from Arizona State University. She has a master’s from Cal State Fullerton.
State education officials’ decision Wednesday to temporarily suspend the use of a common school-performance yardstick doesn’t mean that Newport-Mesa schools now lack the tools to measure achievement.
The State Board of Education unanimously voted to suspend the use of the Academic Performance Index, commonly known as the API, which is based on standardized test scores and widely used to judge a school’s performance in boosting academic achievement. This marks the second year in a row that the education policy-making body has suspended the API’s use.
Educators will be using new Common Core-based assessments this year called Smarter Balance tests and state board members said they want at least two years with these results before compiling them into an index such as the API, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Newport-Mesa Unified Schools Supt. Fred Navarro said the API is just one tool the district uses to determine schools’ effectiveness in teaching state standards. Other assessments, created by the district and by teachers, also monitor student learning.
Such measures, Navarro said, not only help schools to hit state benchmarks, but show the district’s work toward closing the achievement gap among students of varying socioeconomic backgrounds.
The state’s decision comes as Newport-Mesa students prepare to sit down for the first time next month to take the Smarter Balanced tests. Students in grades three to eight will take Smarter Balanced tests in math and English language arts.
It’s unclear whether the Smarter Balanced tests scores will be incorporated, in time, into the API or when the new scores might be used to judge school performance. But reports indicate that state education board President Michael Kirst and other members intend to scrap the API in favor of a new system that would consider other factors besides standardized test scores.
Various educational groups are working with the state to develop a broader school quality measure, the Los Angeles Times reported. Specific proposals are expected later this year.