In the spirit of SBAC testing and everyone talking about how it will affect our school's API (Academic Performance Index) score, I thought I would look into what API scores actually are and how they're calculated! The article I found talks about how they measure not only school performance but also improvement over time, by scoring based on the difference in test scores from year to year. A school's API score can range from 200 to 1000, and the statewide goal for all schools is to reach or surpass a score of 800. It is calculated using CAHSEE and STAR (now SBAC) scores for the student body as a whole, but there are also separate API scores for different racial groups. Los Altos's current 3-year average API score is 886. This number is used to rank schools in the state. I was unable to find specific information about how it is actually mathematically calculated from the student test scores--does anyone know?
Links:
CA Govt publication about API: http://www.cde.ca.gov/ta/ac/ap/documents/apiexecsummary.pdf
Article I mentioned: http://www.greatschools.org/gk/articles/the-api-10-things-parents-should-know/
The SBAC has disclosed a vague way they calculate API. First, "the individual student scores are divided into five performance bands: advanced, proficient, basic, below basic, and far below basic." Second, "a weight is applied to the percentage of students in each category, the lowest weight for the lowest category and the highest weight for the highest category." Then your scores are compared with the Base API which is the scores that the seniors got on the CAHSEE. Then all the scores are added to create the API.
ReplyDeleteSource:
https://www.ed-data.k12.ca.us/pages/understandingtheapi.aspx
Huh, this is interesting. I had never even thought about how they calculate the scores. But that does seem relatively important, as our schools very high score is bound to change after the SBACs are all done and calculated in. Do you think, based simply on our experience with the test, that it will go up or down? I can understand why teachers are really pressing for students to try their best on this exam. especially when the reputation of the school could be at stake. But, at least in my opinion, this test has seemed more difficult than the Star Test was in a lot of ways, including just being hard to understand what they want from you. So it will be very interesting to see how that plays into our school's API score.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThis is a very interesting article. I know that if a school has a better API score, then more people will want to live in that district in order to go to that school. And because the demand for more housing in that district increases, the values of the house will inevitably increase as well. But I wonder how the government determines teachers' wages based on a schools API score? Also, I feel like this system has a lot of flaws, because the school and its students may be very good, just that no one is taking the tests seriously because they probably have something they prioritize more, like the English tapestry project.
ReplyDelete