Academic Performance
Fourteen Years of Raising Student Scores
Hamilton Academic Performance Index (API)
|
Year |
API Base Score |
Statewide Rank* |
Similar Schools Rank** |
|---|---|---|---|
|
2013 |
762 |
4 |
6 |
|
2012 |
730 |
3 |
6 |
|
2011 |
715 |
3 |
5 |
|
2010 |
673 |
2 |
4 |
|
2009 |
689 |
3 |
7 |
|
2008 |
663 |
2 |
6 |
|
2007 |
640 |
2 |
9 |
|
2006 |
628 |
2 |
7 |
|
2005 |
594 |
1 |
3 |
|
2004 |
611 |
2 |
8 |
|
2003 |
585 |
2 |
8 |
|
2002 |
564 |
2 |
8 |
|
2001 |
536 |
2 |
9 |
|
2000 |
488 |
2 |
8 |
Hamilton API Scores (Graph)
... After 14 Years, New Mandates for the California API
This year, 2014, California will NOT calculate an API Base Score for its elementary, middle, and high schools. It's the first time since 1999 that California hasn't done this. Why not?
The reason: California and 42 other States have joined a national education initiative called Common Core State Standards (view 3-minute video). California has also joined a group called the Smarter Balanced Consortium, adopting the Consortium's computer-based testing system as a way to check Common Core standards proficiency.
This year, students in grades three through eight and eleven will help field test the Smarter Balance assessments of English language arts and math skills. The first results will be available in the spring/summer of 2015.
Meanwhile, the California State Senate has passed SB-1458, which says that the results of assessments including Smarter Balance shall constitute no more than 60 percent of the high school API by 2015–16. The remaining 40 percent must encompass other indicators such as graduation data and pupil preparedness for college and career.
So, members of the Public Schools Accountability Advisory Committee--and the public--are currently considering what indicators of preparedness for college and career to use for California's new and significantly revised, to-be-announced, Academic Performance Index (API).
*The statewide rank assigns schools to ten categories of equal size, called deciles, from one (lowest) to ten (highest). It compares Hamilton's API Base score to the API Base scores of all other middle schools in California, identifying the decile in which Hamilton's API Base falls compared to that of the others.
**The similar schools rank compares Hamilton to 100 schools chosen for similarity of demographic characteristics such as students' socioeconomic status, the number of English language learners, and the school's average class size. The APIs for this group of 100 schools are ranked into ten categories of equal size, called deciles, from one (lowest) to ten (highest). Except for 2005 and 2010, Hamilton has consistently scored above average among similar schools.
