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Schools exceed expectations in state test
HUSD sees growth in scores at all schools
By Nathan Wright
Staff Writer
The state of California sent home its annual report card for public schools on Tuesday, results Healdsburg Unified School District officials shared with a smile.
The district continued its steady climb in the Academic Performance Index last year, achieving the state’s growth goals at Healdsburg Elementary School, Healdsburg Junior High School and Healdsburg High School. The Index—or API—is the state’s report card of sorts for its public schools, a grade tallied from the STAR test taken each spring by students in grades two through 11.
The state sets a goal of 800 for schools, a feat accomplished this year by Alexander Valley Elementary School and Geyserville Elementary. Six Healdsburg area schools also met the federal Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) criteria under the No Child Left Behind program.
Healdsburg Unified has spent the past few years working toward the 800 score and the AYP designation, a goal that curriculum and instruction director Annie Millar believes is now within reach. “We’re all thrilled,” she said. “We worked very hard. We’re developing momentum now with a huge amount of growth over the past two years.”
The district released its own report this week on its progress in the past two years, chronicling a 17 point increase at the elementary school since 2007, a 24 point increase at the junior high and a 38 point increase at the high school.
In the report, Millar shows that Healdsburg Elementary School continues to work toward escaping the Program Improvement (PI) status given to the school for failing to reach AYP criteria for consecutive years. Last year the school met 18 of the 21 AYP criteria, three more than the previous year.
“To see them continue to grow and to see the amount of work the teachers are doing really pay off is really gratifying,” said Millar. “This is an external validation that what we’re doing, and the changes we’re making, are working. It shows that we’re beginning to develop a trend here. We’re definitely on the way up.”
Of the three schools, only Healdsburg High School met the AYP criteria last year. Healdsburg Elementary School and Healdsburg Junior High will need to improve mathematics scores this year to make AYP goals in 2010.
Millar said the district recently adopted new math text books and she expects to see those scores to improve next year. “I think that math wasn’t on the front burner and I think that’s why we got those scores,” she said. “I really expect that to turn around. We can make it this year and all of our schools can make AYP. It’s within sight now.”
To the north, the Geyserville Unified School District also celebrated the release of the API results. Geyserville Elementary exceeded the state’s goal of 800 for the first time, improving 85 points in one year to 835. Geyserville Middle School also garnered a huge increase, improving 74 points to 785.
District Superintendent Joe Carnation called the elementary school’s gain incredible. “In 2005, they were at 641,” he said. “They’ve averaged a 38 or 39 point gain per year.” Carnation said the teachers were thrilled with the news. “I expect them to come in and ask for a raise any minute,” he joked. “They’re extremely proud of what they’ve been able to accomplish. On the other hand, they’ve work very, very hard to get here.”
Carnation said the middle and high schools have also shown major improvement in the past five years, although this year’s high school score did show a 55 point drop to 727 overall.
“In the past five years, in every case, in the elementary school, the middle school and the high school, the scores have consistently gone up,” he said. “Last year the high school jumped up 168 points. We knew that it wasn’t going to be sustained. Even in dropping 55 points, the score of 727 is still higher than the scores we had in 2005, 2006 and 2007.”
All three schools met the AYP criteria for No Child Left Behind.
Alexander Valley Elementary School garnered one of the highest scores in the county at 849, a 44 point improvement from last year. The results didn’t come as a surprise to principal Bob Raines who said his staff assesses student progress throughout the year.
“The teachers worked really, really hard last year,” he said. “We implemented a new math program and we looked at those results every quarter. We have goals to make them go even higher, but we’re happy with the results.”
Raines said that the score serves as a validation but will not change day-to-day life at the small elementary school. “These test scores aren’t the end all, be all, but it’s like taking a temperature,” he said. “It’s one indicator that shows how we’re doing, but we’ve also got other assessments we do all year long.”
Raines said he did speak to his students about the results, letting them know they had earned the highest score the school had seen in the past five years. “And next year will be better,” he said.
On the other side of Healdsburg, West Side Elementary School scored 756 on the API, 47 points less than last year’s 803. The school met its AYP criteria.
“It’s a slippery slope,” said school principal Rhonda Bellmer. “We’re such a small school that little shifts and changes can make a big difference.”
Of West Side’s 116 students in 2008-2009, there was a 10 percent change from the year prior when the school scored 803. Bellmer is leery of riding too high on great scores or placing too much disappointment when the scores decrease. “We’re watching it, it is our responsibility, but it’s not the whole story. We’ve done our analysis, we have lots of new students and we’re interested in seeing how they do next year.”
Overall in the county, 55 percent of schools met or exceeded a score of 800. Statewide, only 42 percent of schools achieved the goal.
The district continued its steady climb in the Academic Performance Index last year, achieving the state’s growth goals at Healdsburg Elementary School, Healdsburg Junior High School and Healdsburg High School. The Index—or API—is the state’s report card of sorts for its public schools, a grade tallied from the STAR test taken each spring by students in grades two through 11.
The state sets a goal of 800 for schools, a feat accomplished this year by Alexander Valley Elementary School and Geyserville Elementary. Six Healdsburg area schools also met the federal Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) criteria under the No Child Left Behind program.
Healdsburg Unified has spent the past few years working toward the 800 score and the AYP designation, a goal that curriculum and instruction director Annie Millar believes is now within reach. “We’re all thrilled,” she said. “We worked very hard. We’re developing momentum now with a huge amount of growth over the past two years.”
The district released its own report this week on its progress in the past two years, chronicling a 17 point increase at the elementary school since 2007, a 24 point increase at the junior high and a 38 point increase at the high school.
In the report, Millar shows that Healdsburg Elementary School continues to work toward escaping the Program Improvement (PI) status given to the school for failing to reach AYP criteria for consecutive years. Last year the school met 18 of the 21 AYP criteria, three more than the previous year.
“To see them continue to grow and to see the amount of work the teachers are doing really pay off is really gratifying,” said Millar. “This is an external validation that what we’re doing, and the changes we’re making, are working. It shows that we’re beginning to develop a trend here. We’re definitely on the way up.”
Of the three schools, only Healdsburg High School met the AYP criteria last year. Healdsburg Elementary School and Healdsburg Junior High will need to improve mathematics scores this year to make AYP goals in 2010.
Millar said the district recently adopted new math text books and she expects to see those scores to improve next year. “I think that math wasn’t on the front burner and I think that’s why we got those scores,” she said. “I really expect that to turn around. We can make it this year and all of our schools can make AYP. It’s within sight now.”
To the north, the Geyserville Unified School District also celebrated the release of the API results. Geyserville Elementary exceeded the state’s goal of 800 for the first time, improving 85 points in one year to 835. Geyserville Middle School also garnered a huge increase, improving 74 points to 785.
District Superintendent Joe Carnation called the elementary school’s gain incredible. “In 2005, they were at 641,” he said. “They’ve averaged a 38 or 39 point gain per year.” Carnation said the teachers were thrilled with the news. “I expect them to come in and ask for a raise any minute,” he joked. “They’re extremely proud of what they’ve been able to accomplish. On the other hand, they’ve work very, very hard to get here.”
Carnation said the middle and high schools have also shown major improvement in the past five years, although this year’s high school score did show a 55 point drop to 727 overall.
“In the past five years, in every case, in the elementary school, the middle school and the high school, the scores have consistently gone up,” he said. “Last year the high school jumped up 168 points. We knew that it wasn’t going to be sustained. Even in dropping 55 points, the score of 727 is still higher than the scores we had in 2005, 2006 and 2007.”
All three schools met the AYP criteria for No Child Left Behind.
Alexander Valley Elementary School garnered one of the highest scores in the county at 849, a 44 point improvement from last year. The results didn’t come as a surprise to principal Bob Raines who said his staff assesses student progress throughout the year.
“The teachers worked really, really hard last year,” he said. “We implemented a new math program and we looked at those results every quarter. We have goals to make them go even higher, but we’re happy with the results.”
Raines said that the score serves as a validation but will not change day-to-day life at the small elementary school. “These test scores aren’t the end all, be all, but it’s like taking a temperature,” he said. “It’s one indicator that shows how we’re doing, but we’ve also got other assessments we do all year long.”
Raines said he did speak to his students about the results, letting them know they had earned the highest score the school had seen in the past five years. “And next year will be better,” he said.
On the other side of Healdsburg, West Side Elementary School scored 756 on the API, 47 points less than last year’s 803. The school met its AYP criteria.
“It’s a slippery slope,” said school principal Rhonda Bellmer. “We’re such a small school that little shifts and changes can make a big difference.”
Of West Side’s 116 students in 2008-2009, there was a 10 percent change from the year prior when the school scored 803. Bellmer is leery of riding too high on great scores or placing too much disappointment when the scores decrease. “We’re watching it, it is our responsibility, but it’s not the whole story. We’ve done our analysis, we have lots of new students and we’re interested in seeing how they do next year.”
Overall in the county, 55 percent of schools met or exceeded a score of 800. Statewide, only 42 percent of schools achieved the goal.
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