Catching Up With the Mail: Gauging Academic Performance, Docking Council Members' Pay and Getting Involved

June 5, 2000

Dear Editor,

Are students in the Santa-Monica Malibu Unified School District doing worse as they get older, as some in the community have been saying? Not necessarily.

At the May 17 CEPS forum I presented a profile of the school district which included (among a wealth of other data) a comparison of student academic performance based on test scores. It showed the Academic Performance Index (API) for SMMUSD elementary, middle and high school students compared to the API for students in five similar districts, students in LA County, and students in the four highest scoring districts in California. The figure shows that the APIs for SMMUSD are higher than most of the similar districts, well above the LA County average, but below the levels of the four top districts in California. This is the important message in the figure.

Some people have compared the scores for elementary, middle and high school students and concluded that older students in SMMUSD are doing worse. That is not a fair conclusion because the API score values do not mean the same thing for the different school levels.

The API is not like a thermometer that allows an elementary temperature to be compared directly to a high school temperature. The main reasons this comparison is wrong are that different subjects are tested at the secondary level than at the elementary level and the subject scores are weighted differently in computing the API index. So the numbers are not directly comparable.

In addition, the numbers do not reflect the performance of the same students over time, but different groups of students. For example, we do not know how many of the high school students whose scores make up the API attended SMMUSD schools nor for how long.

In fact, high school API scores are also lower than elementary school API scores in the comparison districts and even for the highest scoring districts, as well. The API is not a common thermometer across levels.

Brian Stecher
RAND

Dear Editor,

The last Letter to the Editor by Mayor Pro Tem Pam O'Connor made me cry. I have learned that she is a hard working-stiff Councilman who receives $750.00 per month from the tax-payers because she serves as a Councilman.

My heart goes out to her; she is working for "me" and I do not appreciate her; and I really do not. What I would like to see is to go back to paying her, and the rest of them on the City Council, Fifty Dollars and no more.

I am told that to serve is an honor; thus, a truly good person, as she is, should be happy with just the honors, but we all know that she receives much more by being a Councilman. I sincerely hope that when her time comes to "run" for the position she is complaining at this time, she will remember her letter of June 01, 2000, and select to stay
home and let us, citizens, be rid of her forever!

Maria Sirotti
Santa Monica

Dear Editor,

Mid-City Neighbors Group just keeps getting bigger and better.

This past weekend at the Mid-City Neighbors 18th Annual Convention, Traffic and Parking plans and community concerns were the focus of the 3 hour meeting. Representatives from the City spoke with residents about their plans and heard plenty of feedback.

Not all the ideas were embraced, but overall the crowd seemed pleased with the openness of City staff to hear their concerns. Also, the convention is our organization's opportunity to elect a new Board of Directors and to consider resolutions that pertain to the Mid-City area.

The election brought forth a wonderful mix of concerned community members and all 15 seats were filled. Our newest Board members Christina Chan, Mike Brourman, Maryanne Solomon, Joan Charles and Susanne Cole are dedicated community members who will lobby well and hard for what is right and fair and I am looking forward to serving with them and all of our returning Board members.

Our group, like many others, is only as active as it's community members, and this year I am pleased that fifteen wonderful folks decided to remain active, get active or get re-involved and help continue our current efforts to control commercial growth, improve traffic and parking in our area and to no doubt work together with our elected officials, residents, community organizations and business's to make the Mid-City area an even more pleasant place to live in, visit and work in.

As President of Mid-City Neighbors it is an honor to see the expanding interest in our area to 'get involved' and help shape the future. I have seen great community activism increase this past year in both our Neighborhood and in all of the existing and new groups.

As I have always said if we don't get involved -- they will (and I bet they don't live here).

Sincerely,

David Cole
President of Mid-City Neighbors