Big testing gains for Cypress, Hesperia Junior

Hesperia schools made big gains in the California Academic Performance Index ranking of schools, which were released on Tuesday.

Among the biggest winners: Cypress School of the Arts and Hesperia Junior High School both went up more than 50 points in the API rankings. API scores range from 200 to 1000, with an Hesperia Unified School District goal of getting all students to 800 by 2010, and a state expectation that scores will improve by 5 percent annually. The scores are based on student performance on a number of tests, with more subjects looked at as grade level increases.

Cypress Academy of Arts went up 58 points, bringing their final score to 819.

"They're our third school into 800," said Larry Bird, the district's director of curriculum, instruction and assessment. Juniper Elementary School and Mesquite Elementary School have previously broken the 800 barrier. Juniper, the first HUSD school to break 800 several years ago, surged up another 24 points this year, to 825, and Mesquite Trails jumped 39, to 841.

"I think, honestly, it's the teachers that we have and the approach that we're taking," said Cypress Principal Scott Sheffield. It's the school's second year in a row of getting the largest API improvement in the HUSD. "We treat the parents and the students as our customers. We need to be on all the time: It's customer service, customer service, customer service."

Three more HUSD elementary schools look like they will be joining the 800 club soon: Kingston Elementary School rose 37 points to 788, Maple Elementary School went up 36 points to 796 and Carmel Elementary School went up 13 to 797 as well.

Even the two lowest-ranking elementary schools, according to the preliminary figures, Cottonwood Elementary School and Eucalyptus Elementary School, each went up more than a dozen points. Cottonwood scored a 741 and Eucalyptus a 755.

"Every school is within striking distance" of 800, based on their growth in the last few years, said Bird.

School scores typically decline as students advance in grades, both because of additional pressures and distractions on students (including puberty and jobs) and because more school subjects are incorporated into the rankings, instead of language arts and mathematics, which are all the youngest students are tested on.

"Our middle schools did well, but they are still just over the 700s," said Bird.

Hesperia Junior High School did what is almost unheard of for a secondary school, and leapt up 54 points, to 720.

"In [the] secondary world, any time you get double-digit growth, you're getting a fabulous job," said Hesperia Junior High School Principal Robert McCollum, who previously oversaw big API score improvements as the principal at Sultana High School. "We hit on all pistons, and I'm very, very proud of the teachers."

Ranchero Middle School rose 9 points, to 735, and Cedar Middle School, which had 8th grade students for the first time last year, dropped 58 points to 704.

"I certainly anticipate Cedar bouncing back next year," said Bird. "They have a good team over there."

At the high school level, Hesperia High School rose 12 points, to 680, and Sultana High School rose 11 points, to 725.

"Our goal for next year is to go up whatever number of points they need to go to get to 800," said Bird. "Our goal for the next four years is to go up whatever points they need to go up to get to 875."

A score of 875 indicates that all students in a school are proficient in all tested subjects.

According to Bird, the secret to so many HUSD schools going up this year has been a new focus on the lowest-achieving students and on students who are close to moving up another academic ranking.

"The principals have really identified those students who are close to reaching proficiency, those students who are on the bubble," he said.

"It's not magic," said McCollum. At Hesperia Junior, the program is called Pick Six, with each teacher targeting six students to give them extra help and attention. "It's keeping at the forefront, keeping it relevant and I tell them point-blank 'if you don't do well on that test, do you get to have an elective or do you need to get extra help?'"

The two strategies get the largest gains for both California educational standards and the federal No Child Left Behind law, which moves the expected level of proficiency for students a little further ahead every year.

"We're now kind of setting our bar at a different point," said Bird.

The HUSD now wants to see all students reaching 875 by 2014.

Beau Yarbrough can be reached at 956-7108 or at beau@hesperiastar.com. Follow us on Twitter at Twitter.com/HesperiaStar.