Pupils display Spartan effort

Robert Chacon

When it comes to standardized test scores, La Canada Unified School

district officials don’t mind playing second fiddle.

The district has the second-highest Academic Performance Index

base score of all unified districts in the state. San Marino Unified

School District has the highest. This is the second year in a row

that the district’s scores have put it in the No. 2 spot.

“Since the inception of the API, the district’s scores have

improved significantly, and they continue to show growth,” said Lindi

Dreibelbis Arthur, the district’s director of assessment, research

and consolidated programs.

The API base scores are released each spring and used as a measure

for schools’ academic growth. The index is measured by using a

combination of student performance on standardized tests and the

California High School Exit Exam taken each spring. In the fall,

school and district growth scores will be released using the data

collected from tests this spring.

Schools are given a score between 200 and 1,000, with 800 being

the statewide performance target.

Overall, the district scored 906, with only La Canada High School

scoring below 900, at 890.

Although scores at some of the schools dipped since last year, it

is not an accurate comparison because the formula for determining the

score changes each year, Arthur said.

“It’s difficult to keep showing improvements when we are scoring

so high,” she said.

An important feature of the API is that it is now largely aligned

to state curriculum standards, Deputy Supt. Jim Stratton said.

“Our teachers do an excellent job of covering those standards,” he

said, adding that each year the district’s teachers create lists of

subjects to be mastered, and they strategize how to teach the most

essential ones.

Teachers also agree on pacing guides, which determine how much

time to devote to certain subjects.

“The whole idea of having standards and teaching and measuring

them is all very comfortable and familiar to our teachers,” Stratton

said.

* ROBERT CHACON covers La Canada Flintridge and La Crescenta. He

may be reached at (818) 637-3239 or robert.chacon@latimes.com.