Test Scores Net County Schools Nearly $20 Million

Schools in Orange County were awarded almost $20 million by the state for meeting their targets under the Academic Performance Index, according to figures released Wednesday.

The allocations were posted on the Web site of the California Department of Education, which will distribute $227 million to 4,502 schools statewide--380 in Orange County. Schools qualified by meeting or exceeding state-imposed improvement targets on the 2000 Academic Performance Index, which is based on students’ scores on the Stanford 9, a standardized basic skills test.

The top-earning district in Orange County was the largest, Santa Ana Unified, which received more than $2.2 million. Saddleback Valley Unified, Capistrano Unified and Garden Grove Unified had the next-highest awards, all about $2 million. Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified, Orange Unified and Irvine Unified were next with about $1 million.

Officials at Saddleback said they were thrilled with the money and their students’ improvement on tests.

“The good thing about the award is that it’s all dollars received at the school site level, so the students benefit directly from the efforts they exhibit and their own productivity,” said William Manahan, acting superintendent.

Manahan said that with an annual district budget of about $260 million, the award is less than 1% of all the funds available to Saddleback. But while most state funds have restricted uses, schools may use the award money almost any way they want.

Principals said they wanted to stretch the money as far as possible, and were considering updating computers, buying better blackboards and offering more teacher training.

At Lambert Elementary in Tustin, which posted the highest gains of any Orange County school, its $40,000 award may go for reading.

“We’re working really hard to get more books in our library,” said Karla Wells, Lambert principal. “We still have some empty room on some of our library shelves that need to be filled up.”

Extra Help for Literacy

The districtwide priority at Santa Ana Unified will be on developing literacy, said Linda Kaminski, the district’s chief academic officer.

“With this money, we’ll be able to really support it on a broader scale and offer more teacher training with a real emphasis on literacy and English language development,” she said.

With a $201,482 award, Santa Ana High School was the only school in the county to exceed $200,000. Next was Capistrano Valley High School with $174,318, Los Alamitos High School with $173,495 and El Toro High School with $159,945.

“Our community will be very happy and pleased,” said Dan Salcedo, principal of Santa Ana High, which has the largest enrollment in the county, with 3,750 students. “This will motivate us to work even harder for this year.”

Salcedo said that he hasn’t decided where all the money will go, but that some will be spent on more tutoring in English before and after school, computer software and classroom materials. He’ll also consult teachers, parents and students about other campus needs.

Myron Okimoto, principal of Thomas Jefferson Elementary in Anaheim, joked that his school’s award could pay the recent high electricity bills.

“We’ve been very cautious about saying what we want to spend it for until it’s actually here,” Okimoto said. “It’s almost hard to believe that it’s actually going to happen.”

The money, which will be received by the districts in early February, is the first part of Gov. Gray Davis’ school accountability program.

Two other pots of reward money, both involving teachers’ bonuses, are still to be divided. The larger chunk is $350 million in one-time funds to be distributed later this spring to qualifying schools and the teachers and staff who work at them.

The third and most controversial program will disperse $100 million in big-money bonuses to teachers, counselors and administrators at schools in the bottom half statewide that showed big gains in the 2000 Stanford 9 scores.

Okimoto expressed concern about how the money will affect teachers and staff once the bigger awards start circulating this spring.

“If you’re at a school and you see some people are receiving so many hundreds of dollars, I wonder how that will affect teachers’ attitudes toward fairness and testing,” said Okimoto. “Any time you put money into the formula, it becomes more serious.”

Information on the awards is available on the California Department of Education’s Web site: https://www.cde.ca.gov/psaa/awards.

Staff writer Martha Groves contributed to this report.

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Better Test Scores Pay Off

Orange County schools netted $19,807,554 for meeting their Academic Performance Index target scores. Santa Ana Unified School was the big winner, awarded more than $2 million for meeting its API goal.

Top 10, by School District

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1. Santa Ana Unified $2,229,154 2. Saddleback Unified 2,076,939 3. Capistrano Unified 1,959,163 4. Garden Grove Unified 1,785,035 5. Placentia-Yorba Linda 1,089,916 6. Orange Unified 1,086,117 7. Irvine Unified 1,005,511 8. Newport-Mesa Unified 870,009 9. Tustin Unified 807,765 10. Anaheim Elementary 790,795

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Top 10, by High School

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1. Santa Ana $201,482 2. Capistrano Valley 174,318 3. Los Alamitos 173,495 4. El Toro 159,945 5. Aliso Niguel 158,995 6. Westminster 150,447 7. Mission Viejo 145,698 8. Trabuco Hills 142,785 9. University 139,176 10. Huntington Beach 137,340

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Source: California Department of Education