Steinberg seeks to change report cards for California schools
California schools spend all year grading student performance, but lawmakers are turning the tables with an issue that strikes at the heart of education: How should a school be graded?
Geometry teacher Beth Riggs goes over first-day-of-class information with her students at El Camino High School last week. Senate Bill 1458 would change how schools are evaluated.
MEASURING SCHOOLS
California's annual evaluation of school performance, called an Academic Performance Index score, is derived solely from standardized test scores. Senate Bill 1458 would do the following:
• Require student test results to make up no more than 40 percent of the API score for a high school, but at least 40 percent for a primary or middle school. The change would take effect in 2014-15.
• Eliminate annual comparison of all public schools against each other by API decile ranking but continue the practice of measuring schools with similar socioeconomic characteristics.
• Provide to the Legislature, before October 2013, a plan to reflect more emphasis in API, or by other means, student mastery of science and social science standards.
• Authorize the superintendent of public instruction, with approval from the state Board of