API stands for Academic Performance Index, a way for everyone to compare an individual school’s performance on standardized academic tests to other schools in the state.  It is the school's report card.  It is also the mechanism by which the state financially rewards schools that have significantly increased academic performance.

Academic testing begins in second grade.  The API is calculated using a school's average test results.  According to Mr. Bernstein at the Research section of the California Department of Education, the following average test results comprise the API for grades 2 through 8:

36% - Language Arts Standards-Based Test 
12% - Reading SAT-9 
  6% - Language Arts SAT-9
  6% - Spelling SAT-9 
24% - Math Standards-Based Test
16% - Math SAT-9

A high school district's API uses a different calculation.  The above calculation is used for kindergarten through eighth grade schools, those schools that are primarily responsible for preparing children for the Exit Exam. 

The API of schools in California has risen dramatically.  This past year, 74% of the schools in California increased their API scores.  

When she released the API results this year, State Superintendent Eastin was very encouraged, and said that " This reinforces our belief that we are on the right path.  The API is a valuable tool by which to measure whether a school is improving academically.  And based on our most recent results, we can see that reforms implemented over the past several years are paying off." 

The API is an index that puts all of the schools in the state into decile rankings based on the school’s average academic test scores.  The lowest ranking is 200 and the highest is 1000.

An API ranking of 800 or above is indicative of a high performing school, and to be 800 and above is the stated goal of every school.  12% of the schools in the state had an API of 800 or higher in 1999, the first year that the API rankings was used.  Two years later, for the 2001 API rankings, 20% of the schools in the state had an API of 800 or higher.  This 8% increase in the number of schools reaching 800 was extremely encouraging to state officials.  The numbers translate to increased academic achievement for thousands of California school children. 

The API also has another ranking called a "similar schools" ranking.  The state uses  demographic factors to give each school a ranking as to how it is doing academically compared to other schools in the state with similar demographics. The demograhic characteristics used by the state for the similar schools ranking are:  mobility (students moving in and out of the school), ethnicity, socioeconomic status, credentialed teachers, emergency credentialed teachers, English language learners, average class size per grade level, and whether the schools operate year round.

The state creates a comparison group for each individual school in the state by treating the individual school as a median and comparing it to the fifty schools above and below it, based on the individual school’s demographic characteristics.  The 100 schools in the comparison group are divided into deciles and the individual school is given a decile ranking compared to these 100 schools.

One major issue of contention in California is the poor academic performance of some groups of students.  

For example, the chart below shows a huge difference between the economically advantaged and economically disadvantaged groups.

The state’s awards program recognizes the disparity among groups and has crafted the awards system to raise their performance.

Instead of awarding a school for increasing its overall average API ranking, the API awards program requires a school to increase the academic achievement of ALL of the groups in the school, e.g., Hispanics, African Americans, low income, etc., in order to be eligible to receive API award monies. 

This awards program has been successful in getting many districts to focus on these groups and to provide programs to increase their achievement.  

There are schools in California with large minority and low income populations where the API is 800 or over, indicating a high performing school.  

See for example, Bennett Kew, an elementary school in Inglewood, California, with an API of 806, with 100% of its students qualifying as economically disadvantaged.  The school is 49% African American and 49% Hispanic.  The African American group's API is 813, and the Hispanic group's API is 799.  

An example of a middle school with academically successful minority and low income students is Richardson, a middle school located in the City of San Bernadino in Riverside County.  39% of the student body is economically disadvantaged, and that group has an API of 836.  Hispanic children have an API of 843 and comprise 47% of the student population.   

The Significance of the API to the Exit Exam

The API is significant because an API ranking of 800 and above is indication that the school is high performing. The tests used to calculate the API indicate the type of academic achievement needed to pass the Exit Exam.  Obviously a low performing school, with a low API ranking, lets the community know that the children attending the school are not performing well on academic tests.    

The API does not tell the community which individual children are at risk but it does tell the community if groups of students are at risk.  It does communicate a ranking for all of the students in the school and for various groups of students.  The rankings reflect academic performance on the same content that is required for passing the Exit Exam.

For more detailed information about the API, here’s a link to the California Department of Education webpage about the API.

Here’s a link to the state website where you can locate that information about the API rankings or similar school rankings of an individual school,