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Tag Archives: Academic Performance Index

Eager to Learn or Not – Part 9/10

20 Jul

During the 30 years that I taught English, reading and journalism in the public schools, I worked with thousands of students from every ethnic and socioeconomic group.

My family, although of White/Caucasian heritage with roots to England, Ireland and Europe would have been placed in three of the categories that the Academic Performance Index (API) identifies.

My brother and I would have been labeled as White (Caucasian), Socioeconomically Disadvantaged and Students with (learning) Disabilities.

A student that is labeled “Socioeconomically Disadvantaged” is defined as “a student neither of whose parents have received a high school diploma or a student eligible for free or reduced-price lunch program”.

A “Student with Disabilities” is defined as student who receives special education services and has a valid disability code on the student answer document (or) a student who was previously identified as special education but who is no longer receiving special education services for two years after exiting special education. This student is not counted in determining numerical significance for the SWDs subgroup.

The API monitors and measures the schools to see if the NCLB Act’s goal of reaching an average and/or norm for all Ethnic/Racial subgroups that is 800 or better on the API is being met.  Failure for schools and teachers to reach this goal for all subgroups may lead to being fired and/or having schools shut down while students will be bussed long distances to schools that have been successful.

For 2010, in California, the norm/average for Students with Disabilities was 544; for Socioeconomically Disadvantaged that norm/average was 701 while the norm for White/Caucasian was 842.

During the thirty years I taught in a public classroom, the subgroups that (on average) resembled my brother Richard and I are found mostly in Black or African American (API 676) and Hispanic or Latino (API 706) subgroups.  Source: 2010-11 APR Glossary-Base API

Continued on July 21, 2011 in Eager to Learn or Not – Part 10 or return to Part 8

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of The Concubine Saga. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. This is the love story Sir Robert Hart did not want the world to discover.

To subscribe to “Crazy Normal”, look for the “Subscribe” button at the top of the screen in the menu bar, click on it then follow directions.

 
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Posted by on July 20, 2011 in American Public Schools, Education, family values, literacy, Parenting, politics

 

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Putting the Blame where it Belongs — Part 6/6

20 May

Comparing the current method used to report API scores with my friend’s suggestion.

A numeric API score ranges from a low of 200 to a high of 1000. The interim statewide API performance target for all schools is 800. A school’s growth is measured by how well it is moving toward or past that goal. The target date to reach this goal is 2014. Recently, Education Secretary Arne Duncan admitted that 82 percent of public schools could be labeled “failing” under No Child Left Behind specifications as they are written at this time.

Current Academic Performance Index Growth by Student Group in California

2010 Growth API Comparison

All Students ­– 767
Black or African American – 686
American Indian or Alaska Native – 728
Asian – 890
Filipino – 851
Hispanic or Latino – 715
Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander – 753
White – 838
Two or More Races – 808
Socioeconomically Disadvantaged – 712
English Learners – 692
Students with Disabilities – 580

My Friend’s Suggested API Report
(Since this does not exist, this is a fictional representation)

900 – 1000
5% of student population, which completed 95 to 100% of homework and/or class work and participated daily in class – average student with this API score reading at or above grade level

800 – 899
15% of student population, which completed 80 to 95% of home work and/or class work and participated often in class – average student with this API score reading at or within one or two years of grade level

700 – 799
30% of student population, which completed between 70 to 82% of homework and/or class work and sometimes participated in class. – average student with this API score reading two or three years below grade level

600 to 699
30% of student population, which completed between 55 to 68% of homework and/or class work and seldom participated in class – average student with this API score reading four to five years below grade level

500 to 599
15% of student population, which completed between 45 to 60% percent of homework and/or class work and rarely participate in class – average student with this API score reading at about fourth grade level

499 or less
5% of student population, which completed less than 10% of homework, 30% of class work and never participated in class – average student with this API score reading at about second grade level

Note — There may also be percentages for each of the six levels that show each ethnic group in each API ranking. For example, 800 – 899 = African-American 10%, Asian 30%, Latino 8%, and White 52%. This way we learn that of the 15% of total students that scored in the 800 – 899 range, there are students of each ethnic group in that API ranking.

Return to Solving the Putting the Blame where it Belongs – Part 5 or start with Part 1

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too.

To subscribe to “Crazy Normal”, look for the “Subscribe” button at the top of the screen in the menu bar, click on it then follow directions.

 
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Posted by on May 20, 2011 in American Public Schools, Education, family values, Parenting, politics, Public School

 

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Putting the Blame where it Belongs — Part 3/6

17 May

Students, teachers, parents, everybody can use these “new” rankings to improve education. A black or Latino student with a low API score can clearly see how he can improve his score. If he puts in more homework time, increases classroom participation, and strives to bring up this classroom test scores by studying and asking questions, he will move up.

This is how API scores should be evaluated, but we don’t because our society is deeply brainwashed to see everything in terms of race.

Those who create and blindly accept the current Academic Performance Index Growth by Student Group – 2010 Growth API Comparison are themselves racist and don’t even know it.

The Black or Latino student looking at this racial ranking clearly sees it is hopeless to even try! Racism like this keeps low achieving racial minorities suppressed which clearly must be the purpose of this modern day version of Jim Crow.

The challenge is to show who is involved in class participation (class work, academic discussions and asking questions), doing the homework, and studying for tests and quizzes.

This is easy to show and Part 4 will show everyone how this will be accomplished.

Continued on May 18, 2011 in Putting the Blame where it Belongs – Part 4 or return to Part 2

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too.

To subscribe to “Crazy Normal”, look for the “Subscribe” button at the top of the screen in the menu bar, click on it then follow directions.

 
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Posted by on May 17, 2011 in American Public Schools, Education, family values, literacy, Parenting, politics, Public School

 

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Putting the Blame where it Belongs — Part 2/6

16 May

My “old” friend wrote in his e-mail, If we took out of each racial group in that racist standardized API test, all the individuals who scored above 90% and put them into group A, the next 80%-90% in group B, and so on, most of the Asians would fall in group A, most African-Americans in group F — everyone distributed into the various groups according to their score.

However, there’d be a lot of “bleed over” between the various groups — that is in group A along with the Asians you’d find some blacks, whites, Latinos, etc. and so on for the other groups.

This is not good. We want a ranking that will minimize bleed over, so let us create some.

The first is a homework ranking in the place of the racial API ranking. You will have A – F groups according to hours spent doing homework with group A doing the most, falling down to group F the least.

Do another ranking of the API racial groups this time according to each individual’s time spent participating in class. Group A individuals would be the highest participation down to group F the lowest.

Do another ranking that focuses on each individual’s test scores throughout the school year – group A the highest down to group F.

You would title these three rankings the following:

  •  Academic Performance Index Growth by Student Homework – 2010 Growth API Comparison
  • Academic Performance Index Growth by Student Class Participation – 2010 Growth API Comparison (includes class work, asking questions, taking part in discussions)
  • Academic Performance Index Growth by Student Classroom Test Scores – 2010 Growth API Comparison

There would be a 1-to-1 correspondence between the different group levels and their API scores. That is every A group would be the top API results down to the F group scoring the lowest API score.

These new rankings would means something! Continued on May 17, 2011 in Putting the Blame where it Belongs – Part 3 or return to Part 1

______________

Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry
her family and culture too.

To subscribe to “Crazy Normal”, look for the “Subscribe” button at the top of the screen in the menu bar, click on it then follow directions.

 
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Posted by on May 16, 2011 in American Public Schools, Education, family values, literacy, Parenting, politics, Public School

 

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