Eight school districts in the West San Gabriel Valley, including Arcadia Unified School District, showed year-to-year increases in Academic Performance Index (API) scores. The API measures student proficiency in English and math.
Arcadia schools receive grants for meeting or exceeding the target growth of 5 percent or increasing their Academic Performance Index (API) score by five points.
A chart shows the API scores for West San Gabriel Valley schools for 2004 on page A4. 85 percent of schools in the West San Gabriel Valley maintained or increased their Academic Performance Index ranking compared to schools across the state.
Arcadia gets top marks in county API scores. Arcadia Unified School District has three of the top four highest scoring middle schools on the Academic Performance Index. Foothills Middle School ranked first, tied with Huntington Middle School in San Marino. First Avenue Middle School and Dana Middle School also ranked in the top four in Los Angeles County.
Arcadia, Alhambra, Monrovia, Pasadena, South Pasadena, San Gabriel, San Marino and Temple City public schools all showed improvement on California state API testing that measures English and math performance. Duarte Unified showed a drop from the previous year.
81 percent of area schools met their growth targets on the California state Academic Performance Index (API). However, 35 percent of West San Gabriel Valley schools failed to meet the federal accountability targets determined by Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP), under the federal No Child Left Behind Act. See chart on page A6 for Arcadia Unified School District progress.
The California State Department of Education has released test scores and rankings. Every spring the state gives each public school two rankings from 1 to 10. A "statewide" rank compares each school in the state and the "similar schools" rank compares schools with similar demographics and populations. Oak Avenue Intermediate in Temple City Unified School District and Huntington Middle School and San Marino High School in San Marino Unified all got 10s in both categories. All schools in the Arcadia Unified School District earned a rank of 10 in the "statewide" category, but ranks varied in the "similar schools" category.
All but one regular Arcadia school ranks in the top percentile of schools across California in the API ratings. A comparison to Monrovia and Pasadena schools is included.
The state Department of Education has revised its Academic Performance Index rankings. Arcadia Unified School District revisions were: Baldwin Stocker Elementary from 4 to 7; Highland Oaks Elementary from 7 to 8; and Holly Avenue Elementary from 8 to 7.
1. State test scores. Arcadia Tribune December 15, 1971. 2. Arcadia schools' test scores high. Arcadia Tribune March 24, 1974. 3. School reading scores drop in most of County. Los Angeles Times April 1, 1974. 4. State school testing input factors bared. Arcadia Tribune March 28, 1974. 5. …
Arcadia Unified School District revives middle school athletics. In 1995, the middle school sports program was dismantled when the district transitioned junior high to the middle school model (6th-8th grades), then the focus veered heavily toward academics. On December 3, 2015, First Avenue Middle School faced off with Dana Middle School for the first time in two decades.
Test results for Arcadia High School seniors showed a small drop in reading scores and a slight gain in math scores for this year's California Assessment Program.
Three area schools will be heading to the state competition after earning high scores in this year's Los Angeles County Academic Decathlon. The Arcadia High School team is shown in a picture with its second place "Super Quiz" trophy.
Arcadia City Council has approved funding for outdoor lights at Dana and First Avenue middle schools, but opposed lighting a soccer field at Foothills Middle School.
Although Arcadia students slipped in their 1983-84 California Assessment Program scores compared to their own performance last year, they still scored well above the average compared to schools statewide. According to figures released by the Arcadia School District and the State Department of Education, Arcadia students in grades 3, 6, 8 and 12 did well above average in all areas tested.