State Releases Latest Public School Ratings

California education officials Tuesday released the latest set of improvement targets and rankings for the state’s 8,700 public schools.

Each year, schools and school districts receive a score between 200 and 1,000 on the Academic Performance Index, a scale that gauges improvements in instruction. Scores are based largely on the results of the California Standards tests given to students in grades two through 11.

The state has set a goal of having every school reach an API score of 800. Based on how far below that benchmark a school remains, it is assigned a growth target for the next year. It is also ranked from 1 to 10 compared to all other schools and receives a second ranking that compares it to schools with similar demographics.

Also released Tuesday were the base API scores for each school that will be used to determine progress this year when the test results are released in August.

To see the scores, go to: latimes.com/schoolscores.