Mills Receives Highest Performance Score in the District

and both improved over last year on their Academic Performance Index scores, according to a report released yesterday by the California Department of Education.

Mills High School had the highest API score, 865, of any school in the San Mateo Union High School District. Although Capuchino’s score improved 39 point to 750, it was still below the district average of 814.

API scores in the district rose among every ethnic and socioeconomic group, but declined 31 points among students that are not fluent English speakers.

“Our students and teachers performed very well last year,” SMUHSD Superintendent Scott Lawrence said in a statement. “But we cannot afford to relax. We still have lots of room for improvement. We also believe in the use of multiple measures and this is just one of the efforts we are working on in the district.”

The state has set a minimum goal of 800, but an annual growth of just 5 points is considered good progress. Overall, 49 percent of California schools met or exceed the goal. However, there is a significant gap between elementary school and high schools achieving the goal, 55 and 28 percent, respectively.

“I applaud the hard work our students, teachers, parents, school employees and administrators are doing to improve—even in the face of severe cuts to school funding,” State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson said in a statement. “At school after school, and among every significant ethnic group, California’s students are performing better than ever. The failure here is in our politics, not our public schools.”

Among the elementary schools, Lomita Park had the biggest score improvement, 25 points, while Green Hills dropped 34 points. Due to the drop, Green Hills went from the highest scoring school in the Millbrae School District, to the third.

Millbrae School District Superintendent Linda Luna was not immediately available for comment.