How many times have you heard that? SFUSD and much of the local media repeat this falsehood whenever they get the
chance. So let's take a closer look at
the real performance numbers.
As of the latest 2012 data from Ed Data, San Diego's LEA (overall) API is one, albeit insignificant, point
higher. When you break down the
demographic data by ethnicity,
the differences between districts become apparent. With the exception of
whites in LA, every other statistically significant ethnic group performs
higher in both LA Unified and San Diego Unified. Whites in SFUSD have an 891
API compared with 896 in San Diego and 875 in LA. African Americans are
110 and 69 points higher in SD and LA,
respectively. Asians perform 5 and 34 points higher. Latinos perform 52 and 30 points
higher. Filipinos perform 58 and 48 points higher.
So why does SFUSD have an API on par with San
Diego? There's one reason: It is the outsized Chinese
population in SFUSD relative to other districts. This
alone skews the statistics in favor of an overall higher district-wide API.
It isn't SFUSD's education policies that are responsible for
its high overall performance. It's the demographic advantage
with its large Asian/Chinese population. But even that performance, as I
said earlier, lags behind both SDUSD and LAUSD.
As we all know statistics can play funny tricks.
When you look at the actual numbers, not the headlines, SFUSD's
contention as highest performing district is revealed to be a falsehood. When
you break performance down by ethnic subgroups, SFUSD is
a laggard. Why it is falling behind is a topic for an upcoming post.
But it has to do in part with the way SFUSD allocates its funding among
schools.
SFUSD; California's highest performing urban
school district? Not
