Board assesses API results, budget concerns

There was a sense of accomplishment at the La Cañada Unified School District Governing Board meeting on Tuesday as Lindi Dreibelbis Arthur, director of assessment, research and consolidated programs, gave a detailed presentation on the district’s second place performance in the state’s Academic Performance Index (API).

API reports, which are released by the California Department of Education each September, are a complex compilation of test scores that assess academic achievement and growth. This year, LCUSD jumped to second place in the state from fourth place with a base API score of 926. The score was a 12-point improvement over the district’s performance last year, but still 26 points behind California’s top performing district, San Marino.

“We’re second place in the state,” board member Jeanne Broberg emphasized. “We have so much going on in the school district it is often easy to not dwell on the good things. We are second in the state.”

LCUSD students turned in their top performances in the English language arts category, Dreibelbis Arthur said, where scores from every grade level were either first, second or third in the state. La Cañada fourth graders logged top honors in any grade level statewide with an English language arts score of 97.

Dreibelbis Arthur called the district’s achievement on the API “phenomenal.”

“Last year we were number four,” Dreibelbis Arthur said. “Last year there was one point that separated second place from third place. There was one place that separated third place from fourth place. This year, as you can all see, La Cañada is number two, and there are four points between second and third place, and there are two points between third and fourth place.”

Despite the strong scores and second place ranking, Dreibelbis Arthur said, there is still room for improvement. LCUSD math scores, while satisfactory as compared to state averages, have remained stagnant. The categories of geometry, algebra II, and high school math are of particular concern , she noted, because there have been no improvement in scores since 2002.

Scores in the sciences were also weak when compared to scores in English language arts, Dreibelbis Arthur said. The LCUSD biology score fell 11 points from last year to 68. The chemistry score fell seven points from last year to 54.