California Department of Education releases growth targets for schools
Schools have been put to the test and the bar is set for how they must achieve, according to the California Department of Education.
Schools statewide completed their California Standards Tests on Thursday, the same day the Department of Education released information that denotes the target growth number for the state’s Academic Performance Index.
Although the state target score for each school, 800, was met by only 11 out of 50 schools in Imperial County last year, the state puts slightly more emphasis on low-performing schools meeting their target growth, Pat McCabe, former manager of the state Academic Accountability Unit, has said.
“It lets you know that you’re better-performing,” Alejandra Limon, spokeswoman for the Calexico Unified School District said about the target growth rate. “You look at that and you say, ‘OK, when my students take the CST we want to make sure that they achieve that target,’” she said, noting that the target is based on the entire student population within second through sixth grades.
“If you meet that target it’s one part of the state testing that you have to comply with,” she said.
Limon said Calexico Unified is different than some districts in that it is a program improvement district because of recurring low test scores.
“Every year that we’re in program improvement we have to have plans of compliance and restructuring,” she said. “It’s a push toward the standards.”