By Joani Gillam
Staff Writer
Mira Costa’s 2010 Academic Performance Index increased by 26 points to a score of 898 and was released to the Manhattan Beach Unified School District on Sept. 13.
With its score, Mira Costa far exceeds California’s requirement of 800 or more points, ranking Mira Costa in the top 1.3 percent of all California high schools and the top 1.8 percent of all high schools in Los Angeles County. Furthermore, Mira Costa’s increase of 26 points from last year helped to raise the MBUSD API Growth score to 926, the highest score that the district has ever received.
“Also, about 75 percent of the students who took the STAR test scored in the advanced or proficient range.”
Despite the fact that Mira Costa exceeded the median API Growth score for similar schools, Costa will introduce the Illuminate program, designed to give teachers and staff more insight into the API data and test scores.
“The goal of Illuminate is to look at the API data student by student, with the hope that we can see what specific testing areas we need to improve on for next year and get the big picture,” MBUSD Superintendent Dr. Michael Matthews said.
Administrators feel that the new standardized testing schedule implemented last year played a huge role in increasing API score. Last year, testing took place in the homeroom period, which was cancelled by a teacher vote last June.
“I believe the schedule was one of the important parts in the improved API scores. We were able to move the date for testing further back, which allowed teachers to teach more, and AP students were able to focus on the STAR tests. In the end, teachers did a great job in preparing the students and the schedule helped bring that to light,” Vice Principal Jaime Mancilla said.
Students may not recognize how the API scores affect them, but with a score of 898, colleges and institutions may see Mira Costa as a place of academic excellence.
“It takes effort on behalf of the entire school to achieve the scores we do. Students need to show the nation how good they are. It could also mean we are again named a California Distinguished School,” Principal Ben Dale said.
“It is because of the great improvement at Costa and terrific API scores that MBUSD’s API growth score of 926 has placed us as the third highest unified school district,” Executive Director of Educational Services Carolyn Seaton said.
API rankings demonstrate the growth of California’s schools, based on a variety of tests, including the California High School Exit Exam and the Standardized Testing and Reporting tests.
“The CASHEE had a 99 percent pass rate on the math portion of the test and a 98 percent pass rate on the English portion,” Seaton said.
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