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Written by: Elizabeth Larson

Published: 01 April 2007

LAKE COUNTY – A new report from the state Department of Education on the base Academic Performance Index (API) for the state's schools shows an overall rise in scores statewide.

For Lake County schools, the report shows growth in scores among a majority of schools.

Last week, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell released the 2006 Base Academic Performance Index (API) report for 9,400 California schools that were given targets for improvement.

The API was established in 1999 to track schools' academic performance and progress on statewide assessments. The Department of Education also reports that API results are used for federal Adequate Yearly Progress requirements.

The annual report once again reflects the consistent rise in median API scores since the API, a numeric index from 200 to 1000, began in 1999.

"I am proud of our students, parents, and educators in California whose continued work toward academic excellence is reflected in the steady academic progress in our schools’ API scores," O’Connell said. "The API is a powerful, comprehensive tool that holds our schools publicly accountable for progress made by all of our students. It supports California’s rigorous standards and ambitious definition of what constitutes ‘proficiency.’"

The 2006 median Base API for elementary schools is 758, up 8 points from 2005. Middle school and high school median scores show similar gains of 10 points and 7 points respectively.

Also, the percentage of elementary schools at or above 800, the statewide performance target adopted by the State Board of Education, is 34.6 percent, up from 31.8 percent in 2005; middle schools is 23.9 percent, up from 20.6 percent; and high schools is 13.6 percent, up from 11.9 percent.

In Lake County, several schools have API targets near 800, including Kelseyville Elementary, Riviera Elementary, Lakeport Elementary, Lakeport Alternative and Coyote Valley Elementary.

Of the 38 local schools assigned 2006 base scores, 20 showed improvements during last year's testing.

Local schools that have recorded schoolwide and comparable improvement – the latter meaning that all numerically significant subgroups at the school met their API subgroup targets -- are Kelseyville Elementary, Mountain Vista Middle School, Burns Elementary School, Lower Lake Elementary, Cobb Mountain Elementary, Coyote Valley Elementary, Middletown Middle and Upper Lake High.

The featured chart for Lake County's schools includes 2007 API targets, 2006 statewide ranks, 2006 growth and base scores, 2005-06 growth and base, along with met growth targets. The chart also includes explanations of the rankings.

While the 2006 API results reflect solid academic gains over the last eight years, they also highlight what O’Connell considers the overriding issue facing California education today – the achievement gap that exists between traditionally higher- and lower-scoring subgroups of students.

Student subgroups are defined by ethnicity, socio-economic, and disability status as well as whether or not a student is an English learner.

Since the API system originated in 1999, schools have been expected not only to meet schoolwide academic growth targets but also student subgroup targets. However, this year the API will focus schools more intensely on narrowing achievement gaps.

The recent reports also reflect the addition of results from new 2006 science assessments, O'Connell reported.

For more reports and data on school districts, visit www.cde.ca.gov.

E-mail Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

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		API						Met Growth Target
	2007 API Target	2006 Statewide Rank	2006 Growth	2006 Base	2005-06 Growth	2005 Base		School-wide	Comparable Improvement (CI)	Both Schoolwide and CI
KELSEYVILLE UNIFIED	D	D	724	725	28	696*
Elementary Schools
Kelseyville Elementary	794	7	790	789	61	729		Yes	Yes	Yes
Riviera Elementary	787	6	784	782	-24	808		No	No	No
Middle Schools
Mountain Vista Middle	694	4	690	688	36	654		Yes	Yes	Yes
High Schools
Intermountain High
Kelseyville High	711	6	699	706	16	683		Yes	No	No
ASAM Schools
Donaldson (ED) Education Center
Kelseyville Community Day
KONOCTI UNIFIED	D	D	658	659	14	644
Elementary Schools
Burns Valley Elementary	680	2	682	680	29	653		Yes	Yes	Yes
Lower Lake Elementary	719	4	721	719	38	683		Yes	Yes	Yes
Pomo Elementary	673	2	674	673	2	672		No	No	No
Middle Schools
Oak Hill Middle	629	2	622	620	12	610		Yes	No	No
High Schools
Lower Lake High	666	4	657	659	0	657		No	No	No
Small Schools
East Lake Elementary	704	3*	701*	699*	-2	703		No	No	No
Lewis (Richard H.) Alternative	686	4*	644*	680*	-52	696*		No	Yes	No
ASAM Schools
Blue Heron	D	D	396*	417*	-24	420*		No	Yes	No
Carle (William C.) High (Continuation)	D	D	697*	691*	135	562*				N/A
Genesis High	D
LAKE COUNTY OFFICE OF EDUCATION	D	D	507	507	18	489
Small Schools
Clearlake Community	469	1*	445*	452*	B					N/A
ASAM Schools
Redbud Community	D	D	503*	497*	28	475*				N/A
Renaissance Court	D
LAKEPORT UNIFIED	D	D	726	730	-5	731
Elementary Schools
Lakeport Elementary	796	7	793	791	2	791		Yes	No	No
Middle Schools
Terrace Elementary	726	5	720	721	-6	726		No	No	No
High Schools
Clear Lake High	734	7	718	729	-5	723		No	No	No
Small Schools
Lakeport Alternative	800	9*	778*	799*	B					N/A
ASAM Schools
Natural High (Continuation)	D	D	503*	525*	120	383*				N/A
LUCERNE ELEMENTARY	D	D	714	711	4	710
Elementary Schools
Lucerne Elementary	716	3	714	711	4	710		No	No	No
MIDDLETOWN UNIFIED	D	D	752	752	15	737
Elementary Schools
Cannon (Minnie) Elementary	697	3	694	692	1	693		No	Yes	No
Cobb Mountain Elementary	A	9	865	863	8	857		Yes	Yes	Yes
Coyote Valley Elementary	800	7	800	798	10	790		Yes	Yes	Yes
Middle Schools
Middletown Middle	774	7	764	769	40	724		Yes	Yes	Yes
High Schools
Middletown High	706	6	699	701	3	696		No	No	No
Small Schools
Lake County International Charter	720	4*	715*	715*	B					N/A
ASAM Schools
Loconoma Valley High
Middletown Community Day
Middletown Elem Community Day
UPPER LAKE UNION ELEMENTARY	D	D	667	665	-11	678
Elementary Schools
Upper Lake Elementary	688	2	684	682	5	679		No	Yes	No
Middle Schools
Upper Lake Middle	656	2	648	648	-32	680		No	No	No
ASAM Schools
The Grove
UPPER LAKE UNION HIGH	D	D	659	656	68	591
High Schools
Upper Lake High	669	4	667	662	64	603		Yes	Yes	Yes
ASAM Schools
Clover Valley High (Continuation)
Upper Lake Community Day
In order to meet federal requirements of No Child Left Behind, a 2006 API Growth is posted even if a school or LEA had no 2005 API Base or if a school had significant population changes from 2005 to 2006. However, the presentation of growth targets and actual growth would not be appropriate and, therefore, are omitted.
Legend for “Target Growth” notations:
" * " means this API is calculated for a small school or LEA, defined as having between 11 and 99 valid Standardized Testing and Reporting (STAR) Program test scores included in the API. The API is asterisked if the school or LEA was small in either 2005 or 2006. APIs based on small numbers of students are less reliable and therefore should be carefully interpreted.	"A"means the school scored at or above the statewide performance target of 800 in 2005.				"B" means the school did not have a valid 2005 API Base and will not have any growth or target information.			“C” means the school had significant demographic changes and will not have any growth or target information.
“D” means this is either an LEA or an Alternative Schools Accountability Model (ASAM) school. Target information is not applicable to LEAs or to ASAM schools.	“E” indicates this was an ASAM school in the 2005 API Base Report and has no target information even though the school is no longer an ASAM school.				2006 Statewide Rank: On the API base reports, schools are ranked in 10 categories of equal size, called deciles, from 1 (lowest) to 10 (highest). A school's statewide rank compares that school to other schools of the same type in the entire state. The school types are elementary, middle and high. Each decile contains 10 percent of all schools of that type. A school's statewide rank is the decile where that school's API Base falls compared with the Base APIs of the other schools statewide of the same school type. Special education schools and schools in the ASAM do not receive statewide ranks.
Targets Met - In the "Met Growth Target" columns, the growth targets reflect state accountability requirements and do not match the federal Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) requirements. The AYP requirement for the API is a 2006 API Growth of 590, or a one-point increase from the 2005 API Base to 2006 API Growth for a school or LEA.

 

Details

Published: 31 March 2007

This is the second installment in Lake County News' ongoing series, Feeding Awareness: Food Insecurity in Lake County.

LAKE COUNTY – "Do you live in Lake County?" and "Are you hungry?" If the answer to both questions is yes, Rural Food Project is here to help.

"We don't put people through a lot of hoops to get food," says Hedy Montoya, who heads the program in Lake County.

Part of the Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Santa Rosa, Rural Food Project is a program that distributes food to the hungry throughout Lake and Sonoma counties. There are currently two sites in Lake County where food is distributed once a month.

The Rural Food Project distributes every third Wednesday of the month at St. Joseph's Church in Middletown and every fourth Monday at St. Peter's Church at Kelseyville. Both distributions are held from 4:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. and people typically begin lining up at 4 p.m.

During the distribution, volunteers hand out boxes of fresh fruits and vegetables and nonperishable foods. Each box of food lasts approximately ten days for a family of four.

The program began in Middletown in July 2002, and in September 2006, it opened in Kelseyville.

The Rural Food Project purchases food for 18 cents per pound at the Redwood Empire Bank in Santa Rosa. The approximate cost per month to feed people is $1,800, and this is slowly increasing.

According to Montoya, the food primarily goes to the working poor. She finds that around the end of the month, these people are choosing to use what's left of their money to pay bills rather than eat. The other major recipients are seniors who end up prioritizing utility bills and prescriptions over food.

The registration process is minimal and doesn't include much more than a few questions.

Since July 2006, 1,075 individuals have received donated food at least once – approximately 150 families. In Middletown in March, 89 boxes of food were given to 247 people. In Kelseyville, 55 boxes of food were given out to 239 people.

Montoya is the only paid staff member of the Rural Food Project. Everyone else who contributes is a volunteer. Montoya says there are around 20 people she knows she can always ask to volunteer. Among the many generous volunteers, a few especially stand out in her mind as they have been there to help on an ongoing basis since the program's beginning five years ago. This includes Judy Knight, Julie Sears, Bettye McKinstry, Merna Scott, Carolyn and Bill Tobin Jr., and Bill Tobin Sr., who is 99 years old this year.

In 2006, Montoya won the Stars Marla Ruzicka Humanitarian Award for her efforts in feeding the hungry. She credits the volunteers of the program: "The volunteers have made it all possible. I stand on their shoulders. They do such incredible work," she says.

Montoya doesn't want anybody getting burned out, however, so she is always looking for new volunteers to organize, pack food, distribute, and drive loads of food to and from St. Joseph's pantry.

St. Joseph's Church in Middletown is the only Rural Food Project site with a pantry, so emergency food is available. People may call (707) 987-8139 to arrange pick-up or delivery.

The biggest issue, though, explains Montoya, is trying to figure out ways to create money to feed the poor. United Way and FEMA used to provide grants to the Rural Food Project, but these are no longer a guarantee. "We're looking at any other feasible way of doing it," she says.

"Government funding is down immensely. Grants are no longer as available as they were, so we're looking to the private sector and business to help. We used to get a lot of help from the government in terms of providing food, but everything is being slashed.

"Most people don't know that we're here and we're doing this work," she adds.

The Rural Food Project is currently looking for assistance to buy a covered trailer that can haul food from Middletown to Kelseyville. Over the past couple months, it has rained on Kelseyville's distribution night and much of the food got wet in the open beds of the trucks that are currently being used.

The next Rural Food Project distribution in Middletown will be held Wednesday, April 18. The next distribution in Kelseyville will be held Monday, April 23. In May, due to Memorial Day weekend, Middletown's Kelseyville's distribution will be held on the third Monday, May 21, rather than the fourth.

Monetary donations may be mailed to the following address. All donations to this address will go toward Lake County's program:

Catholic Charities

18713 Spyglass Road

Hidden Valley Lake 95467

Memo: RFP Lake

St. Joseph's Church is located on the corners of Bush and Highway 175 in Middletown. St. Peter's Church is located on Main Street in Kelseyville. To learn more about the Rural Food Project, including information on donating or becoming a volunteer, call (707) 987-8139.

E-mail Penny Dahl at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

 

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Details

Written by: Editor

Published: 31 March 2007

LAKEPORT – The ESPN Bassmasters Golden State Shootout Pro entered its third day Saturday.

The tournament, which began on Thursday with 108 anglers, was down to 50 by day three.

After the weigh-in, it was Greg Gutierrez of Red Bluff who led the field, with more 91 pounds, 14 ounces, catching bass totaling 25 pounds on Saturday, according to the ESPN Bassmasters standings.

In second place was Steve Kennedy of Auburn, Ala., with 90 pounds, 4 ounces. On Saturday alone he caught more than 40 pounds of Clear Lake bass, standings reported.

Skeet Reese of Auburn, one of six participants from California, had a good third day, bringing in 35 pounds of bass for a three-day total of 89 pounds, 12 ounces.

Another Californian, Jared Linter from Arroyo Grande, came in at fourth place, with 28 pounds of bass caught Saturday and a three-day total of 79 pounds, 13 ounces.

The action will conclude later today.

For the full standings, visit sports.espn.go.com/outdoors/tournaments/elite/news/story?page=bt_clearlake_launch_day_three-weighin.

 

 

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