Hermosa students continue to excel
Hermosa public school students continued to score in the top 10 percent statewide in the latest comprehensive measure of standardized academic testing.
Students at the second-through-eighth grade Hermosa Valley School earned 921 out of a possible 1,000 points in the Academic Performance Index, or API, which is the state Department of Education’s main measure of how the schools are doing.
Students at the kindergarten-through-second grade Hermosa View School scored 934 out of 1,000 on the index. State educators ranked both schools in the top 10 percent statewide, and also ranked Valley School in the top 10 percent among California schools with similar demographic profiles.
For View School, no comparison was available for schools with similar demographics. The Department of Education does not typically produce those comparisons for small student populations, and at View, only 56 pupils took part in testing used to determine the API scores.
City school district Superintendent Bruce Newlin praised the Valley and View staffs for “their continuing dedication to quality education.”
State officials arrive at the “similar school” rankings by comparing schools with similar characteristics including pupil mobility, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, percentage of teachers who are fully credentialed, percentage of teachers who hold emergency credentials, and percentage of pupils who are English language learners.
Other factors include average class size per grade level, percentage of students in gifted and talented education programs, percentage of students with disabilities, percentage of reclassified fluent-English-proficient students, and percentage of migrant education students.
The Academic Performance Index is designed to measure student achievement in areas such as English-language arts, mathematics, science, and history. State educators compile the index using the “STAR” Standardized Testing and Reporting tests, high school exit exams (which are not taken in Hermosa), and the California Modified Assessment, which is administered to some students with disabilities in third through fifth grades. ER