Board Reviews School Test Scores, Celebrates Student of the Month

Student of the Month

With Jefferson Union High School District board president Maria Luna on vacation, boardmember Jeanne Matysiak congratulated October’s Student of Month, senior Ryna Joanne Castor.

Ms. Castor’s repertoire includes volunteering at her church and at , acting as the Associate Student Body Rally Commissioner, representing the Oceana Parent Teacher Student Alliance (OPTSA) and Oceana at Girl’s State during her junior year, and taking a variety of honors courses.

Ms. Castor will be the first in her family to attend a four-year college, and she wishes to pursue a medical degree is psychiatry.

School Scores

Martha Meade, associate superintendent of education, gave a lengthy and informative presentation on the district’s Academic Performance Index (API) and Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) scores.

API scores are a single number indicator of student performance on the state Standardized Testing and Reporting (STAR) test which is mandated by the state government, while the AYP is a federal requirement. The California Department of Education supplies both the API and AYP reports as a part of the Accountability Progress and Reporting System (APR), a system that provides an incorporated, analytic approach to interpreting scores across a variety of subgroups and school systems.

Highlights of the presentation included:

• JUHSD exceeding San Mateo-Foster City School District API with a score of 761, up 12 points from last year.
• With an overall score of 676, Jefferson High School’s Hispanic/Latino population increased their score by 13 points
• almost reached 800 with an API of 793, an increase of 25 points.
• was the first to break the 800 record with an API of 801.
• Terra Nova’s Hispanic/Latino population increased their score by 57 points.
• Westmoor High School is close on Terra Nova’s heels with an API of 798, with the Filipino population exceeding 800 points.
• 1,259 sophomores were tested.

Graduation rate percentages were amended from . Jefferson High School and Westmoor High School did not meet their expected rates, though it was found that their graduation percentages had slightly increased. Jefferson achieved over a 76 percent graduation rate, falling just short of its target, just over 78 percent. Westmoor missed by less than two points, scoring nearly 89 percent instead of 90 percent.

Meade was careful to make the point that scores are just numbers, and only an indicator of how students perform at that one moment.

“Test scores are a fluent topic. Students are human beings not test scores,” she said.

Important Upcoming Dates for Pacifica Schools: October 25, 5:00 pm, Second Budgetary Meeting at the District Office, 699 Serremonte Ave, #100, Daly City, CA