By James Yeh
Staff Writer

The school’s 2004 API score of 786 was an 11 point decrease from last year’s 797. API, or Academic Performance Index, is conducted by the state and measures school-wide learning performance on a scale of 200 to 1000. It incorporates test results from the California Standards Test, High School Exit Exam (CAHSEE) and California Achievement Test (CAT 6). Scores are published every August, and the ideal score for every school in this state-wide test is at least an 800.
During the 2002-2003 school year, Los Altos showed a considerable jump in API scores. After three years of mediocre scoring, the school improved nearly 30 points. This may have been due to the fact that in 2003, the Stanford Achievement Test (Stanford 9) was replaced by the CAT 6. But according to Principal Wynne Satterwhite, the increase in API scores was not involuntary.

The Problem
“The year that we had that big jump, we as a school made a really concentrated effort to talk to students about why it was important, and I think when we take things more seriously… the students take things more seriously,” Satterwhite said.
However, according to Satterwhite, API scores do not always accurately define the quality of learning at a school. When seniors graduate and freshman come in every year, students who take the tests change. Furthermore, students opting out or being exempted from the tests also hurt the school’s score. When students choose not to take the tests, they are assigned the lowest possible score of 200, and when these scores are averaged in, they significantly lower the overall score.
Moreover, the governor scholarships that were awarded to high scorers in previous years were no longer given this year. As a result, some students lost incentive to score well on the tests.
“I just don’t care about them [anymore],” junior Nikolay Varbanets said.
A few students are taking even more drastic measures.
“I am actually trying to get out of taking [the tests],” junior Gabe Shapiro said.

Still Looking Good
According to Satterwhite, the budget cuts do not seem to have any noticeable effect on the API scores. Satterwhite said that if a teacher or department really needed anything, it would most likely be given the funds for it.
Although the school’s raw score is below an 800, when compared to the state average, it is still in good shape. The school’s API score was assigned a 10 out of 10 ranking, putting the school a big step ahead of the state average. The rankings measure the school’s performance against others with similar demographics.
“When you look at all of our scores and then you compare them to the state, we look really good,” Satterwhite said.
However, scoring well on API scores is not a major concern for the school. For Satterwhite, the most important concern is providing students with the best learning environment and helping them reach their full potential.