Governor Awards $31,406 to School
Crediting hard work by students, faculty and parents, Gov. Gray Davis gave Tarzana Elementary School a check Friday for $31,406 for meeting its Academic Performance Index growth target.
Tarzana--one of 4,500 schools in the state sharing in $227 million in performance awards--achieved 107 performance index growth points, well above its target of 13.
“Your numbers went off the charts,” Davis told the students assembled in the school’s auditorium. “If you were playing for the Lakers, you’d be leading scorers.”
The API is drawn from a school’s scores on the Stanford 9 basic skills test.
Award amounts are based on a school’s enrollment, not its test-score gains. Tarzana’s award, which breaks down to about $63 per student, may go toward the purchase of computers and software to aid reading and math instruction.
Davis said each of the school’s teachers will also receive an award bonus in the range of $5,000 to $25,000 to be distributed in the spring.
Under the Certificated Staff Performance Incentive program, a total of $100 million in the bonuses will be awarded to teachers at California schools showing the highest achievement in meeting their API growth targets, a spokesman for Davis said.
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