Memo: To: Palo Alto Unified School District Board of Trustees Fm: Wayne Martin/Palo Alto, CA Dt: December

24th, 2011 Re: API Scores vs Parent Education For SF.BayArea Counties For School Year 2011 The following data, taken from the California Department of Educations web-site, provides the API scores of the school districts in the six SF.BayArea counties vs the education of the parents in those districts for the 2010-11 school year:

Santa Clara County

Avg. Parent Education 4.6 4.7 4.4 4.5 4.4 4.0 4.6 4.5 4.0 3.1 3.3 3.5 3.9 3.2 3.2 3.2 3.1 3.0 2.9 2.9 2.7 3.0 3.1 2.9 3.3 2.1 2.3 2.4 1.8 2.4 2.3

County/District Code 43695180000000 43696820000000 43694920000000 43694190000000 43695260000000 43695000000000 43696410000000 43695340000000 43694680000000 43694350000000 43695750000000 43693850000000 43696090000000 43733870000000 43693770000000 43695910000000 43693930000000 43696900000000 43696740000000 43696250000000 43694840000000 43696660000000 43695830000000 43696330000000 43694010000000 43693690000000 43694500000000 43696170000000 43695420000000 43694270000000 43104390000000

District Name Los Altos Elementary Saratoga Union Elementary Lakeside Joint Cupertino Union Los Gatos Union Elementary Loma Prieta Joint Union Elemen Palo Alto Unified Los Gatos-Saratoga Joint Union Fremont Union High Evergreen Elementary Moreland Elementary Cambrian Mountain View-Los Altos Union Milpitas Unified Berryessa Union Elementary Mountain View Whisman Campbell Union Sunnyvale Santa Clara Unified Oak Grove Elementary Gilroy Unified San Jose Unified Morgan Hill Unified Orchard Elementary Campbell Union High Alum Rock Union Elementary Franklin-McKinley Elementary Mt. Pleasant Elementary Luther Burbank East Side Union High Santa Clara County Office of

Tested 3351 1804 54 13641 2347 325 8814 2305 7483 10465 2971 2481 2562 7370 6278 3378 5367 4584 10544 8525 8129 23642 6699 642 5275 9184 7239 1980 362 16659 161

API-11 969 968 968 955 930 929 926 904 885 882 874 874 860 849 843 834 834 823 810 806 800 798 779 778 777 770 770 765 753 749 420

API Scores vs Parent Education Santa Clara County (2011) 1000 800 600 400 200 0 4.6 4.0 3.3 3.2 2.7 2.1 2.3 Average Years Of Parent Education

API Scores

API Scores

San Mateo County

County/District Code 41689080000000 41690880000000 41689570000000 41689810000000 41689650000000 41688660000000 41688820000000 41689730000000 41689320000000 41690390000000 41688740000000 41690700000000 41690470000000 41690130000000 41689160000000 41688900000000 41690620000000 41690050000000 41689240000000 41689400000000 41688580000000 41689990000000 API -11 969 968 965 941 934 907 899 884 844 840 839 819 814 812 796 796 789 766 761 745 724 715 Avg. Parent Education 4.5 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.4 4.0 4.1 3.4 3.6 3.5 3.4 3.1 3.5 2.8 2.8 3.0 3.1 2.4 3.3 2.2 2.5 1.9

District Name Hillsborough City Elementary Woodside Elementary Las Lomitas Elementary Portola Valley Elementary Menlo Park City Elementary Belmont-Redwood Shores Element Burlingame Elementary Millbrae Elementary Pacifica San Mateo-Foster City Brisbane Elementary South San Francisco Unified San Mateo Union High San Bruno Park Elementary Jefferson Elementary Cabrillo Unified Sequoia Union High Redwood City Elementary Jefferson Union High La Honda-Pescadero Unified Bayshore Elementary Ravenswood City Elementary

Tested 1209 346 966 557 1909 2311 2046 1707 2397 7771 422 6781 6019 1922 4439 2454 5484 6634 3483 256 299 2579

41104130000000

San Mateo County Office of Edu

122

575

2.3

API Scores vs Parent Education San Mateo County (2011) 1000 800 600 400 200 0 4.5 4.5 4.1 3.5 3.5 3.0 3.3 1.9 Average Parent Education In Years

API Scores

API Scores

San Francisco County

Avg. Parent Education 2.7 2.4

County/District Code 38684780000000 38103890000000

District Name San Francisco Unified San Francisco County Office of

Tested 37196 372

API -11 796 412

API Scores vs Parent Education San Francisco (2011)

800 API Scores 600 400 200 0 2.7 2.4 API Scores

Average Parent Education In Years

Santa Cruz County

Avg. Parent Education 4.2 4.2 4.2 3.8 3.9 3.4 3.5 3.5 3.4 2.7 2.4 2.2

County/District Code 44697570000000 44697730000000 44697320000000 44697810000000 44754320000000 44698490000000 44698150000000 44698070000000 44698230000000 44697650000000 44697990000000 44104470000000

District Name Happy Valley Elementary Mountain Elementary Bonny Doon Union Elementary Pacific Elementary Scotts Valley Unified Soquel Union Elementary Santa Cruz City Elementary San Lorenzo Valley Unified Santa Cruz City High Live Oak Elementary Pajaro Valley Unified Santa Cruz County Office of Ed

Tested 93 79 73 72 1974 1402 1391 1860 3403 1498 14075 242

API-11 925 910 907 887 880 833 832 828 775 757 717 601

API Scores vs Parent Scores Santa Cruz County (2011) 1000 800 600 400 200 0 API Scores

API Scores 4.2 4.2 3.9 3.5 3.4 2.4 Average Years Of Parent Education In Years

Contra Costa County

Avg. Parent Education 4.3

County/District Code 07617700000000

District Name Orinda Union Elementary

Tested 1924

API-11 957

07617470000000 07618040000000 07617130000000 07618120000000 07616300000000 07616710000000 07617050000000 07616550000000 07617390000000 07616630000000 07617620000000 07617540000000 07617210000000 07616970000000 07616480000000 07617960000000 07100740000000

Moraga Elementary San Ramon Valley Unified Lafayette Elementary Walnut Creek Elementary Acalanes Union High Canyon Elementary Knightsen Elementary Brentwood Union Elementary Martinez Unified Byron Union Elementary Oakley Union Elementary Mt. Diablo Unified Liberty Union High John Swett Unified Antioch Unified West Contra Costa Unified Contra Costa County Office of

1386 22060 2486 2582 4012 54 365 6445 2992 1268 3504 25029 5211 1166 13179 20477 84

955 922 922 905 903 888 847 843 832 827 790 786 764 742 731 709 605

4.5 4.3 4.4 4.1 4.3 4.3 2.8 2.9 3.4 3.2 2.8 3.3 2.9 2.7 2.7 2.3 2.4

API Scores vs Parent Education Contra Costa County (2011)

1000 800 600 400 200 0 4.3 4.4 4.3 3.4 3.3 2.7 Average Parent Education In Years

API Scores

API Scores

Alameda County
Avg. Parent Education 4.0 4.6 4.2 3.7 3.9 3.8

County/District Code 01751190000000 01612750000000 01751010000000 01750930000000 01611270000000 01611760000000

District Name Sunol Glen Unified Piedmont City Unified Pleasanton Unified Dublin Unified Albany City Unified Fremont Unified

Tested 187 1924 11350 4508 2748 23781

API -11 939 930 906 885 881 877

01611500000000 01611190000000 01612000000000 01611430000000 01612420000000 01612340000000 01612180000000 01613090000000 01612910000000 01612590000000 01611920000000 01611680000000 01100170000000

Castro Valley Unified Alameda City Unified Livermore Valley Joint Unified Berkeley Unified New Haven Unified Newark Unified Mountain House Elementary San Lorenzo Unified San Leandro Unified Oakland Unified Hayward Unified Emery Unified Alameda County Office of Educa

6755 6514 9441 6659 9329 4838 39 7985 6412 26718 14786 514 56

865 842 832 790 775 773 751 741 738 726 715 702 474

3.6 3.3 3.3 3.6 3.0 2.9 2.7 2.7 2.7 2.5 2.4 2.9 2.0

API Scores vs Parent Education Alameda County (2011)

1000 800 API 600 Scores 400 200 0 4.0 3.9 3.3 2.7 2.4 Average Years of Parent Education

API Scores

Observations 1) Districts with the highest API scores (over 900), all show average parent education of more than 4 years (BS or better). 2) There is a more-or-less linear relationship between student achievement (via the API scores) and parent education. 3) No school districts in the SF.BayArea posted Advanced API scores where the average parent education is not 4+ years (BS or better) While this data has been available since the State of California started posting the educational testing data on-line, most schools, and school administrators seem unwilling to publish this data on their web-sites, or even to acknowledge the well-established relationships between student performance and the home environment. To Do:

Areas where expansion of this data, and linkage to other data about these communities, seems natural: Linkage of student performance to US Census Tract data (including parent income). Create an API vs Parent Education table/graph for every school in California. Determine use of paid tutors by students in each of the five performance zones of the API scoring paradigm (Advanced, Proficient, Basic, Below Basic, Far Below Basic). Generate complete API vs Parent Education dataset for all California Counties. Linkage of API scores with percentage of Qualified/Emergency-Credentialed teachers in each district. Linkage of per-student-spending to API scores in each school district.

With all of this information generally available, and easily managed via a Relational Database Management system, one can only wonder why this sort of data is not readily available on each school districts web-site, the web-site for each County Department of Education, and the State Department of Educations web-site. Questions It is not hard to see the need to pose the following questions: Just how much can a school system do in 180 days a year? How much can parents be expected to do in the home? How much can the schools (meaning the taxpayers) be expected to do to deal with the difference in home environments between the different socio-economic levels of students in the public school systems? Should distance learning be employed to deliver educational programs/support to homes, particularly to supplement low end students?

Conclusions This information is being forwarded to the PAUSD Board of Trustees so that the individuals comprising this board can have access to this basic information about student performance which is all too often ignored, or suppressed, by education professionals and officials. The current crisis over whether Algebra II should be a requirement for graduation from the PAUSD schools will come and go. However, these larger issues of transparency and accountability in the education system will continue. Whether or not the PAUSD can, or should, do more to insure that every student graduates with the qualifications necessary to gain entrance to the UC/CSU system is an open question. The data extracted from the CA Department of Education data suggests that this is not the case. Hopefully the Board of Trustees will take this data to mind, when dealing with this, and similar issues, as they emerge in the future.

Wayne Martin Palo Alto, CA