Good news from Sacramento!

Proposed changes to promote a greater variety of school performance measures, including whether students are career-ready, is finding support in the legislature.

California’s Academic Performance Index (API) was never supposed to be based on a single test. When it was created as part of the Public Schools Accountability Act of 1999, the legislation specified: “This bill would require the Superintendent of Public Instruction, with approval of the State Board of Education, by July 1, 1999, to develop the Academic Performance Index (API), consisting of a variety of indicators, to be used to measure performance of schools, especially the academic performance of pupils.”

Since that legislation was passed more than a decade ago, the only “variety” has been in the changing high-stakes California Standards Test (CST) used to determine the school rankings. A new measurement system proposed by Senate President pro Tem Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento) would reduce the emphasis on the California Standards Test by limiting the exams to no more than 40 percent of a high school’s overall ranking, and a minimum of 40 percent for middle and elementary schools.

The new measurement system would also replace the API with a new system known as the Education Quality Index, or EQI, which would be based on multiple measures developed by a committee headed by State Superintendent Tom Torlakson. Initially, SB 547 calls for including graduation rates and how well schools prepare students for college and career success, and the bill allows more measures to be added down the road.

Susanna Cooper, a consultant to Sen. Steinberg, says the frustration that’s been building among educators and state policy makers over the testing may account for the lack of opposition at yesterday’s committee hearing. In the long queue of people waiting to comment on the bills, not one spoke against them. Some said their organizations hadn’t taken a stand yet, but added that they generally support the measure.