Capistrano Schools Get Lower State Rankings

One of Orange County’s consistently high-performing school districts earned overall good marks in state rankings released today but fared less well when compared to schools with similar characteristics.

An enviable 14 of 38 schools in the Capistrano Unified School District met a state-set benchmark for performance, compared with 12% across California. But 20 Capistrano schools that shone statewide turned in lackluster performances

when compared to campuses where students have similar levels of affluence, family education and language skills.

The results were listed in the Academic Performance Index, a public ranking of all California schools and cornerstone of a $242-million plan to hold educators accountable for student learning. The index, based for the time being on standardized test scores alone, gives schools absolute ranking of 1 to 10 (10 being the highest). To level the playing field, each campus is given a second 1-to-10 ranking comparing it to the 100 California schools with similar demographics.

While the absolute scores for schools remain unchanged, those “similar-school” rankings are being re-released today. The state yanked them earlier this year in an embarrassing admission that data were flawed and incomplete.

Since then, 4,100 schools in 600 districts revised the data on which the rankings were based. Those schools had inadvertently supplied faulty data or no data at all on the percentage of students qualifying for free or reduced lunches, a measure of poverty.

The new information resulted in changes in the rankings at 56% of the schools in the state. Most differences were minor, involving a change of one or two notches in the rankings. But in 18% of the schools, the change in rank was more significant. In Orange County, similar-schools marks changed for 244 of the 415 schools ranked in January.

This is, however, the first peek at any of Capistrano’s data, because the district suffered in-house computer glitches that prevented the release of information in January.

The district found, for example, that its admirable 9 and 10 rankings at Arroyo Vista, Benedict and Castille elementary schools and Aliso Viejo and Niguel Hills middle schools were offset by modest 2s and 3s when compared to similarly affluent schools. A 10 places a school in the top 10% of schools; a 3 represents the bottom 30% of schools.

The apparent similar-schools anomalies in Capistrano are prompting officials to send questionnaires to all parents about their educational achievements--a key predictor of their children’s academic performance. Previously pupils or teachers answered questions about whether a parent had completed a doctorate or never graduated from high school.

“It appears to us that the . . . calculation of statewide rankings is solid,” said Jeff Bristow, Capistrano’s testing analyst. ‘We’re not sure the data underpinning the similar-schools rankings is solid. . . . We don’t want to challenge it; things will be clarified over time.”

Capistrano school officials also say two of their campuses--Las Flores and Newhart schools--were accidentally misclassified as elementary schools, so their rankings are skewed. The district plans to inform the state that Newhart Middle School is no longer an elementary school, as it once was, and that Las Flores contains both an elementary and a middle school--the two are now lumped together in the rankings.

Across Orange County, educators said the re-release of similar-schools data gave them more confidence in the information, because schools included better poverty data this time around.

They could also see for the first time which 100 schools composed their comparison group. This new information let administrators know what county schools were their peers, providing an opportunity for educators to consult on strategies that work with particular student groups.

Huntington Beach Union High School District was a big winner in the new similar-schools rankings. All of its high schools crept upward on the similar-schools scale.

Some of the county’s premiere schools in the affluent Laguna Beach and Irvine districts slipped slightly in the new rankings but still scored well on both the overall and similar-schools scales.

Pam Ellis of Anaheim City School District said she has much more confidence in the new numbers, even though the status of her schools didn’t change much. Like many districts with large numbers of poor, immigrant students, Anaheim takes pride in its many 8s, 9s and 10s in similar-schools rankings that help offset the disappointment of low overall marks.

“We’re pleased to be compared with like populations, because we did very, very well,” she said.

That said, the overcrowded school district knows it needs to raise overall rankings or face state penalties. The state set target improvements for each school that failed to meet the benchmark the first time. Progress toward that goal, or the lack thereof, will help determine rewards and sanctions.

The Anaheim Union High School District, one of the first in the state to notice flaws in the first similar-schools rankings, saw two of its schools, Ball and South junior highs, gain three levels once more accurate poverty data was considered.

The district’s testing analyst, Mary Dalessi, has already printed the list of 100 similar schools for principals of every Anaheim Union campus so they can compare notes with educators who work with similar students.

“For [Anaheim’s] Loara High School, one of the schools in the ranking list is Fullerton High. That’s a neat piece of information to know,” Dalessi said.

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* SCHOOL RANKINGS

A campus-by-campus list of Orange County’s results. B8