Closing the Gap - Meeting the Achievement Challenge in California
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Selection Criteria

The schools featured on Closing the Gap were selected based on the following criteria:
  1. Demographics
    The Planning Committee sought schools with significant numbers of
    • Students on free and reduced-price lunch
    • African American students
    • Latino students
    • English language learners


  2. California Academic Improvement Index (API)
    To be considered, schools had to
    • Score in at least the 4th decile
      (All schools that receive an API score are ranked in deciles by grade level of instruction: elementary, middle, and high. A rank of 10 is the highest and 1 is the lowest. Each decile in each school type contains 10 percent of all schools of that type.)
    • Grow a certain percentage on the API based on their decile rank (see the Selection Grid)
      (The API is on a scale of 200-1000. California has set an interim statewide performance target of 800. A school's growth target is calculated by taking 5 percent of the distance between the school's API and the state target of 800. This compensatory model allows the series to showcase schools that might not have reached the desired level of achievement yet, but are steadily improving the academic achievement of all students.)
    • Narrow the gap among API subgroup scores
      (e.g. if white students as a group score higher than African American students, the growth of the African American students must be greater than the growth of white students)


  3. Stanford Achievement Test, Edition 9 (SAT-9)
    SAT-9 is a standardized, norm-referenced, multiple choice test administered to all California students in grades 2-11 each spring. It is the primary measure for determining a school's API. The SAT-9 scores were analyzed using the Quasi-Cohort Method for Trend Analysis. Researchers looked for yearly, incremental improvement.


  4. Evidence of research-based, whole school reform
    Members of the Planning Committee conducted site visits, interviewing teachers and observing classrooms to confirm that the school's reform process was a thoroughly researched and planned effort that could be articulated well by the staff.






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