By Olin Ericksen
Staff Writer

April 4 -- Santa Monica schools will have to do their homework this year to hit the most aggressive academic growth targets ever set by the State under the Federal No Child Left Behind Act.

In an effort to have all students achieving Federal standards in school by 2014, State officials Monday asked California schools not yet up to par to aim high next year and hit a five point improvement in their overall Academic Performance Index which measures and compares schools.

"The big news here really is schools are being asked by the State to aim for five points, whereas we used to see growth targets of one or two points," said Maureen Bradford, the Santa Monica-Malibu School District's director of educational services.

As schools in Malibu continue to set a high academic watermark and are no longer required to increase their growth targets, several Santa Monica schools remain below the State mandated score of 800 in the API.

Five schools -- Santa Monica High School, Edison Elementary, Will Rogers Elementary, John Muir Elementary and Adam Middle School -- all scored between 770 and 782 points in 2006.

While the 2006 index figures for local schools were released last Fall, scores were slightly adjusted this Spring to factor in new exams that were taken, as well as other factors, Bradford said.

The revised figures released Monday did not significantly increase or decrease the scores first reported last Fall.

Overall the District's score rose one point, from 817 to 818, and was still considered a substantial 10-point increase from 2005.

"This is another indicator of the outstanding quality of educational programs in our district and the strong support we receive from parents and the community each day," said the District's Superintendent Dianne Talarico.

"Each of our campuses continues to strive to improve instructional practices in order to assure that every student by name becomes proficient in California's rigorous content standards."

However, as in previous years, a well-documented achievement gap exists at local schools between white and minority students who may come from poorer neighborhoods in Santa Monica, Los Angeles and surrounding communities.

All five of the schools asked to achieve the five point growth have a significant minority student population, with some students learning English as a second language.

One other school for at-risk youth in the district, Olympic High School, is also below API standards, but has a different accountability standard.

While the District achievement last fall was 817, African Americans students scored 692, up 14 points from 2005, while Latino students faired slightly better at 715, up 17 points.

"Economically Disadvantaged" students scored 706 last fall, up nine points, while English learners scored 733, up 20 points.

While moving in the right direction, education officials said much work lies ahead.

"The overall forecast for the last five years is that we have seen growth across all groups and the fact that it continues to climb is good news," said Bradford. "We now have to accelerate that pace further to close the (achievement) gap."