FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

September 1, 2004
Contact:  Lori Sterling
510-465-6444 or
510-552-7542

 2004 API and AYP Results: Making Progress?

(Oakland, CA) - The Education Trust - West released a short report today examining the latest Accountability Progress Reports for California schools and districts released by state officials yesterday. Overall, results show that most schools are meeting federal Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) goals for student achievement as well as improving on California's Academic Performance Index (API), but that progress is slow and wide gaps persist.

"By participating in Title I - and receiving more than $1.7 billion in federal monies this year to help educate low-income students - California agreed to commit itself to the goal of bringing all students to proficiency in language arts and math by 2014," said Russlynn Ali, director of the Education Trust - West. "The data released today tell two stories about our progress toward meeting that goal."

"On the one hand, more schools are making Adequate Yearly Progress toward teaching students what they need to know. On the other, this year's goals for student achievement are modest at best, and still far too few minority and low-income students make AYP," said Ali.

The report analyzes statewide AYP results and finds that while nearly two thirds of schools statewide met AYP - up from last year - about half of California's high schools were successful, and only 44% of California's middle schools met AYP. Additionally, wide gaps continue to separate California's low income students and students of color from their peers.

The report also delves into the reasons schools did not meet AYP, including participation rates and success in meeting statewide achievement goals. For example, of those high schools that did not make AYP, 44% did not meet AYP because they didn't test enough of their students. And a full 66% of schools that did not make AYP did so because they did not meet their goals for black students in math. (To make AYP, schools only had to get 9.6% of students to proficiency in high school, and 16% in elementary and middle schools.)

"The truth is, under California's API, whole groups of students with abysmally low achievement levels fall beneath our radar, and achievement gaps often grow. AYP shines a bright spotlight on these otherwise invisible students floundering at the bottom. How can we, especially while waxing eloquent that all means all, turn our back on them?" Ali asked.

Finally, the report addresses school success on the API and compares those results to AYP, pointing to wide gaps and tragically low achievement levels that remain hidden under California's API.

"The real question now is whether we're prepared to embrace the AYP results," said Ali. "Are we going to sharpen our focus and do what it takes to improve achievement for those students left furthest behind? Or are we going to turn our back on the important goals of AYP and NCLB in favor of maintaining the status quo?" Ali concluded.

The EdTrust West report examining the 2004 Accountability Progress Reports, "Achievement in California: How is our Progress?" can be found at www.edtrustwest.org.

###