LAUSD Releases Academic Growth Figures

The Los Angeles Unified School District has released figures that signal an . The Academic Growth Over Time Report for 2010 looks at the progress that students make from one year to the next–the school's "value add"–rather than focusing on one year's standardized test results in isolation.

Each school's ratings can be found in an online database on the LAUSD Web site, and reports are downloadable as PDFs.

Most principals in the area, including those from Camellia Avenue Elementary, James Madison Middle School, , Colfax Charter Elementary,, , Strathern Street Elementary, and Arminta Elementary were in an all-day principals meeting Wednesday regarding the budget for the new school year, and were unavailable for comment. Most of their coordinators were either in preparation for their own budget meetings tomorrow or otherwise unavailable for comment Wednesday.

Carpenter Community Charter School's PTA president Andrew Barrett-Weiss was pleased with the school's report.

"I'm very happy for our school being so high in this," he said, "We have a dedicated bunch of teachers, and this only proves it even more. I'm very happy."

Lankershim Elementary's coordinator, Cynthia Braley, said she was not surprised to learn that the school had far exceeded estimates of progress in 5th grade mathematics, but had fallen short on 3rd grade math and English Language Arts (ELA) compared to 2009.

Braley said that the figures were useful, but only presented a partial picture of classroom life.

"I think it's valid, but we also need to give our teachers the resources that they need," she said, "because we have a lot of [ability] levels in each classroom", she said, adding that "you can't just use one assessment, you have to use multiple measures." 

Talking about the above average scores the school had received for 5th grade mathematics, Braley said "we have good teachers in 5th grade. They're really amazing."

As to whether the ratings should have been released to the public, Braley reiterated that a broader picture was what was needed, and said that it was more important for parents to know about budget restrictions that have resulted in .

"Four more students in kindergarten–29–is unheard of," she said "I hope that voters realize we need to fund education."