SCUSD Observer
API Scoring
Recently, the API scores for the Sacramento City Unified School District were released. I first realized this fact when I saw the front page of the current issue ofSacramento Magazine(http://www.sacmag.com/media/Sacramento-Magazine/June-2010/Rating-the-High-Schools/), which showcases a particularly interesting article called “Rating the High Schools.” The reason that I found this article to be interesting was the fact that, in addition to providing the long list of scores received by area schools, it provided 10 short interviews with students from some of the top schools. Not only did this add dimension to the “ranking,” it allowed readers to see a side of the schools that is often shadowed by the importance of API scoring. It is true that these scores can say a lot about a school – namely the quality of preparation received by the students – but what these scores don’t show is the personal side of a school. How are the sports programs? Are the teachers both personable and effective? Is the school safe, inviting, or even bearable, at the very least? These are all aspects that are often ignored by the API-centric “scoring” of our district’s schools.
As a result of this, many parents often overlook valuable schools because their scores are “inadequate.” As a tour guide at the majority of the tours for potential students at my high school, I often see parents make this mistake, the majority of their questions being based on testing. Unfortunately, this results in unhappy students – kids who either didn’t get what they expected from high school or were not pushed academically.