MIDDLE SCHOOL

1. DEVELOPED IN PARTNERSHIP WITH MIDDLE SCHOOL

2. The Middle School Report Card (SRC) is published each year by the school district. It was developed by LAUSD staff joined by members from community groups and non-profit organizations. It describes how students are doing at each of over 700 individual schools. About the School Report Card Since January 2009, the Los Angeles Unified School District has made the SRC available for all parents. These report cards are released every year once the district has the data to release them. The SRC gives the community knowledge about how schools are doing. People from the community did not have access to the information on the school report card in one place before the report card was published. Now that you have the information on the SRC, you can use it to find out how your school is doing and find areas your school needs to improve in. Want to find out more? Go to http://reportcardsurvey.lausd.net for a detailed description of the school report card and answers to common questions.

3. Student Report Card: First Glance This top row is what you see on the inside when you lay the report card flat. Each of these pages has its own section-you can go to the tab with the page’s name to find out more. This bottom row is what you see on the outside when you lay the card flat. The “Learn more” page has its own section. Go to the “Learn more” tab to find out more.

4. How to Read the Middle School Report Card The School Report Card provides key facts about a school that every parent should know. Every schooling level (grade, middle, and high school) has its own report card. The report card shows if students are moving to the next level as fast as they should be. It also describes how schools are performing on accountability measures used by the state and federal governments. The School Report Card has six “pages” or sections: PROGRESS, READINESS, LEARNING ENVIRONMENT, STUDENT GROUPS, LEARN MORE, and GET INVOLVED. The GET INVOLVED section has information you can use to get involved in your school. Each other section has questions parents might ask about school performance. The answers to most of those questions are presented on each of the five pages. Parents should think about how this information affects their child’s education and how they can help the school do better.

5. “09-10” is the academic year of this report card : 2009-10 This bar compares the 100% of the 8th grade class with the two other bars. Enrollment in Algebra 1A and 1B is important because it is the first of a series of higher-level math classes needed to succeed in high school and college. This text shows you what each bar means. For instance, “A. All 8th graders” means bar A shows all 8th graders As you can see this bar is larger than bar B. This is because this bar represents 61%of bar B, not the whole 8th grade

6. This first page of the report card gives you an idea of how data will be shown inside the report card. This information is also shown inside the report card, but we will go over it here as well. You will notice that this data uses percentages. Graphic examples of how to explain percentages to parents are on the next page. Eighth-graders enrolled in and passing algebra. The second bar shows the percent of eighth-graders who took both Algebra 1A and Algebra 1B this year. A 100% bar is included to help parents compare the full number of students who could be in the program. The third bar shows the percent of students from the second bar that passed both those classes with a “C” grade or better. It is possible for the third bar to be longer than the second, because the third bar shows the number of students in the second bar who passed. For example, if 60% of eighth-graders were in Algebra 1A and 1B, and 80% of those got a “C” or better, the third bar would be longer. Basic algebra is the first in a series of higher math classes students need to succeed in college and life. Because many students fail to develop a solid math foundation, an alarming number of them graduate from high school unprepared for college or work. Many end up taking remedial math in college, which makes getting a degree a longer, costlier process than it is for their more prepared classmates. And it means they’re less likely to complete a college-level math course. For middle-schoolers and their parents, the message is clear: It’s easier to learn the math now than to relearn it later.

8. You may wonder why many of the pieces of information on the school report card are in percentage form. Percentages (marked with the % sign) help you see at a glance how significant some issues are to the school. They also let you easily compare different topics and groups. For instance, if the report card says 75 students at this school are at grade level in math, that number by itself doesn't tell you very much. To really know what 75 students at grade level means, you need to know how many students are at the school. 75 can either be a large number or a small number depending on if the school has 100 students or 1,000 students. If the report card says 75%, that tells you much more about how the school as a whole is doing. If you are not familiar with percentages or need to refresh your memory, there's an easy way to think about them. You can think of percentages in terms of money. If 100% is one dollar, each percent is one cent. 50%, then, is the same as 50 cents out of a dollar, which is half. If you see a more challenging percentage such as 77%, this method can help you. Seventy-seven (77) cents is slightly more than 75 cents, which is three-fourths of a dollar. This means that 77% of something is slightly more than three fourths.

9. PROGRESS-11 PROGRESS-15 PROGRESS-17

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11. This is the state target API, which means that schools should try to reach an API of 800 and beyond. This arrow shows whether your school’s API moved up or down last year This API measures how well, on average, a school prepares its students. A higher number means a better score. This number shows how much your school’s API moved up or down last year Progress page 11

12. What is the API? The API is a single number between 200 and 1000. It shows the performance level of a school, a district, or a subgroup. Academic performance levels are based on statewide testing results. It is calculated by converting a student’s state test performance on state tests into points on the API scale. These points are then averaged across all students and all tests. The growth of schools can be found by comparing one year’s API with the previous year’s API. Each School Report Card shows a school’s Academic Performance Index (API) in the top left corner. In the boxes is the school’s current API score along with the change from the previous year. An arrow shows if the change was positive or negative. The Progress section shows if students at the school are reaching the goal for each schooling level. For high school students, this means graduating and being ready to start college or a career. For middle school students, this means being ready to move into high school. For elementary school students, this means being ready to move into middle school.

13. Table Example These two columns show the results for the most recent year (2009-2010) and the year before (2008-2009). This helps you compare over time. For instance, if the newer number or percent is larger. It shows you that change is happening. Title goes here This is where we tell you what is being measured. The thing being measured will be in number or percent form, because this type of table helps you compare numbers and percents. This gives you the average for all the public high schools in LA. It lets you see where your school is in comparison to other schools. Progress page 13

14. This table shows how most information on the School Report Card is presented. You will likely become familiar with this format, but if you ever have questions about this type of format, refer back to these pages, pages PROGRESS-13 and PROGRESS-14. This format gives you quick access to three pieces of information. Above the blue box, you can see the date “2009-10.” This date means that the information shown in the blue box is from the most recent school year we have a report card for. This is the “now” snapshot of how this particular school is doing. The information in this box will generally be in percent form. If you have trouble with percents, turn back to pages INTRODUCTION-7 and INTRODUCTION-8 in the first section. The information in the blue box is placed with information in two other boxes for comparison. The brown box on the left has the date “2008-09” above it, which means that the information in the brown box is a year older than the information in the blue box. These boxes let you see how the number measured is moving. If the number in the blue box is larger, the number is moving up. If the number in the brown box is larger, the number is moving down. Depending on what the number is, these can be either good or bad. The information in the beige box is also for comparison. It shows the “LAUSD Average” which is the average for all LA public schools. This lets you compare your school with other schools.

15. Are more students at your school scoring proficient or advanced this year than last year? Progress page 15

16. Students at grade level in ELA and Math. The top table shows how many students are at grade level in English language arts (ELA) and math. It shows how well students do in ELA and math on the California Standards Test (CST). This test helps measure if students have learned grade level subjects. • The CST is given to students in grades two through eleven. Test scores are reported in five levels. These levels are far below basic (the lowest), below basic, basic, proficient, and advanced (the highest). If a secondary student scores proficient or advanced on the CST, she or he has learned the course content. • The first row shows what percent of students scored at the ‘proficient’ or ‘advanced’ levels on the CST in English. If the percent shown was 75%, this would tell a parent two things. First, that 75 out of 100 students scored at a ‘proficient’ or ‘advanced level.’ Second, that the other 25% scored at ‘basic’ or below. Another way to look at this is three out of every four students at the school scored ‘proficient’ or ‘advanced’ in English language arts. Right after the English language arts table we see another row. This row shows the number of students that were ‘proficient’ or ‘advanced’ in math.

17. This will be available in the spring of 2010. It shows how much students have grown taking previous scores into account Progress page 17

18. Academic Growth over Time • Academic Growth over Time looks at school-level value-added results. The District is moving toward a new system of looking at student gains. It will use a value-added method that controls for external factors which often influence student test results. The Board of Education and the Superintendent are committed to the selection of the best statistical model to compute school-level Academic Growth over Time. The results will be provided in the Spring of this year.

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21. This bar shows us the percent of all 8th graders taking Algebra 1A and 1B that are passing. This bar can be larger than the second bar because it tells us what percent of that bar passed Algebra 1A and 1B. This bar is for comparison. It helps you compare the entire 100% of 8th graders with the number taking Algebra. This bar shows the percent of all 8th graders who are taking Algebra 1A and 1B classes Readiness-21

22. Eighth-graders enrolled in and passing algebra. This graph is like the graph on the cover of the middle School Report Card. But this graph shows the results for the individual school. The second bar shows the percent of eighth-graders who took both Algebra 1A and Algebra 1B this year. A 100% bar is included to help parents compare the full number of students who could be in the program. The third bar shows the percent of students from the second bar that passed both those classes with a “C” grade or better. It is possible for the third bar to be longer than the second, because the third bar shows the number of students in the second bar who passed. For example, if 60% of eighth-graders were in Algebra 1A and 1B, and 80% of those got a “C” or better, the third bar would be longer.

23. If you have any questions about these boxes, see page PROGRESS-13 This bar shows, out of the 8th graders at this school, what percentage is taking Algebra 1A and 1B. These classes will help them get ready for high school. This number shows, out of the percent taking Algebra 1A and 1B, how many are passing with a “C” or better. This percent can be larger than the percent above because it is out of that number, not out of the entire middle school population. Readiness-23

24. The table shows the same information as the graph on page READINESS-21. It shows percentages from the last year and the average for all LAUSD middle schools. Middle schools try to make sure their students are ready to enter high school. That’s why the readiness section of a middle School Report Card shows how many eighth-grade students are taking and passing Algebra classes. We can also see how well eighth-graders do in English language arts and math.

25. This table shows the percent of 8th graders that scored “proficient” or “advanced” in different subject portions of the CST If you have any questions about these boxes, see page PROGRESS-13 Readiness-25

26. Eighth-graders at grade level in English language arts and math. This table shows the percent of eighth-graders that scored ‘proficient’ or ‘advanced’ on the English language arts (ELA), math portions, history, and science portions of the California Standards Test. The three columns show the current year, the previous year, and the LAUSD average.

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29. This table shows survey answers from students, parents, and staff. The survey asked questions about what it is like to be at this school. These top numbers show how many of each group responded to the survey Each of these numbers shows what percentage of parents, staff, and students “agreed” pr “strongly agreed” to each question LEARNING ENVIRONMENT-29

30. School experience survey results for students, parents, and staff members. The School Report Card also shows the percent across students, parents and staff who agree to different statements on a survey. The fourth column shows how all groups feel about how clean and safe their school is. This table will probably need the most explanation for two reasons: It’s the first time survey results are included on a report card. The ways the school district found the percentages needs to be explained. Each of the boxes shows the percent of students, parents, and staff who ‘agreed’ or ‘strongly agreed’ with different questions. For example, ‘student opportunities to learn’ includes student answers on whether they feel challenged, are encouraged to ask questions, and think their teacher believes in their ability to learn. The lower box under parents shows something else. We asked parents how often they are involved with their school in several ways. These include talking with teachers about how well their child is doing, talking with other parents, and volunteering at school. If they answered ‘often’ or ‘always,’ they would be counted as parents who are involved.

31. This table shows what level of school students plan to complete. This category includes students who do not know how far in school they plan to go These boxes give the percent of middle school students at this school who selected each of the options LEARNING ENVIRONMENT-31

32. Student Academic Goals. The middle School Report Card shows what students say about how far they want to go in school. As can be seen below, the students chose from several options. These options were: high school, vocational college, going to a two-year-college, a four-year college, graduate school or they don’t know how far they intend to go in school. This table is important because it can show if your child’s middle school encourages students to go to college.

33. A lower number here is better because a high rate of suspension shows that students break rules often If you have any questions about these boxes, see page PROGRESS-13 A higher number here is good, because it means that the school is a more stable learning environment A lower number here is bad, because it means a higher absentee rate LEARNING ENVIRONMENT-33

34. Teacher retention rates. Teachers who are happy at their school tend to provide more effective instruction than those who are not. The School Report Card also shows the percentage of teachers who have taught at the school for three years or more. A low percentage on this table could mean that the teaching staff changes often. This makes it hard for a school to have a stable learning environment. Student and staff attendance. Students learn more when they come to class, and they need to work every day with a teacher who knows them and their learning needs. These rows show the percentage of students and teachers who came to school for 96% or more of the days in the school year. Different calendars at different schools may have different numbers of days. A 96% attendance rate usually means no more than 7 days were missed in one year. Studies have shown that when student and teacher attendance drops below 96%, students do not learn as well. Student suspension. A high suspension rate means many students are suspended. This can show that students at the school break the rules more often. This can interfere with learning for all students. The row shows the percent of students who were suspended at least once this year. A student who was suspended more than once is still counted only once.

35. A teacher with a credential to teach a class meets the state requirements to teach that class. A higher percentage here is better. This is because teachers who are trained to teach specific middle school courses are more effective than teachers who are not.

36. A teacher with a credential to teach a class meets the state requirements to teach that class. A higher percentage here is better. This is because teachers who are trained to teach elementary school are more effective than teachers who are not. NCLB highly qualified teachers meet the following standards: • a bachelor's degree, • a state credential (or an Intern Certificate/Credential for no more than three years), and • demonstrated subject-matter competence for each core subject to be taught by the teacher. A certificate to teach English learners shows that a teacher has training to teach students who are learning English. If your child is learning English or there is a high number of English learners at your school, this percentage is very important. This is because it shows how ready the school is to help English learners.

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39. These bars show the number of students in each group that scored “proficient” or “advanced” on the English and Math sections of the California Standards Test “Economically disadvantaged” students come from low-income families, “English-learners” are students in the process of learning English STUDENT GROUPS-39

40. This table shows how well different groups of students do in English language arts and Math classes. These groups include ethnic groups as well as other groups. Students who need to learn English are called English learners. Students with an IEP (Individual Education Program) to fit their learning needs are called students with disabilities. Students who come from families with limited incomes are called economically disadvantaged. Proficiency rates for different student groups. The graph at the top of page 4 of the school report card shows bars with the percent of students who scored at proficient or advanced levels in English language arts and math. The lengths of the bars show which groups perform higher than other students and which perform lower. This is useful to a school. The school can use this to help teachers help groups of students who need extra support. Parents can see which groups of students are in danger of falling behind grade level.

41. The district is working to give African-American students better opportunities at school. This bar provides specific English language arts and math percentages of African-American students scoring proficient or advanced on the California Standards Test STUDENT GROUPS-41

42. The district is working to give African-American students better opportunities at school. Schools should develop partnerships with children’s parents. Teachers can use this partnership to learn about students’ culture, knowledge, and experiences. This helps teachers better understand their students. Parents should be given the opportunity and tools to support their children‘s learning. This support should also help them effectively represent their children. The community is part of the culture that shapes the child. Schools need to work with the community to help student learning.

43. Each student in special education has an Individualized Education Program to help meet his or her unique needs. This bar provides specific English language arts and math percentages of students in special education scoring proficient or advanced on the California Standards Test STUDENT GROUPS -43

44. “Students with disabilities” is a category that includes many groups of students. For example, these groups include students with autism, learning disabilities, mental retardation, emotional disturbance, deafness, visual impairment, and others. Special education programs are designed to help these students. Each student in special education has an Individualized Education Program (which you may see called and “IEP”) to help meet his or her unique needs. Parents of students in special education should help form this plan, because they know their children better than anyone else. If you have any questions about special education in LAUSD, you can contact the Division of Special Education at (213) 241-6701, or visit their website at http://sped.lausd.net/

45. “Proficiency in the English language” means a student can perform grade-level work in English English learners usually reclassify within five or six years starting the English learner program If you have any questions about these boxes, see page PROGRESS-13 This test is one of the requirements for reclassification. Like the CST, it is scored on 5 levels. “Improving” means moving up a level or staying on the highest level STUDENT GROUPS-45

46. English learners moving toward reclassification. This table helps parents understand how well English learners at a school are moving toward reclassification. Reclassification means that an English learner is ready to do grade-level work in the English language. If your child speaks a language other than English in the home, he or she is given a test when entering school. This test is called the California English Language Development Test (CELDT). It tests how well your child speaks English. Like the CST, scores are reported in five different levels. English learner students usually move up at least one level on the CELDT each year they are in the class. They usually reclassify after spending five or six years learning English. The first row shows the percent of English learner students who moved up one level or more on the CELDT test this year. Then we see the percent of English learner students who scored proficient in English on the CELDT test. To reclassify, a student needs to: • Score proficient on the CELDT, • Score basic or above in English language arts on the California Standards Test (CST), and be recommended by the school and parent.

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49. This number tells you the number of students at this school These percentages tell you how many students fall into each of these ethnic groups These percentages tell you how many students fall into each of these other groups LEARN MORE-55

50. This card is very straightforward, and is very similar to the first card in STUDENT GROUPS. This card tells you how many students are at the school, and which proportion of students fall into each of these ethnic, social, and academic groups.