Schools Chief Candidate Larry Aceves Comments on Release of Latest APR Results

BURLINGAME, CA – California Superintendent of Schools Candidate Larry Aceves made the following comments today following the release of the 2008-2009 Accountability Progress Report:

“The scores on the latest Accountability Progress Report are a testament to California’s students and educators.  Despite devastating budget cuts and decades of inadequate school funding, this year’s scores on the state accountability system, the Academic Performance Index, remained steady with the previous year.

“The achievement gap between Asian and white students and their black and Latino classmates has narrowed slightly in recent years, but it is still a persistent problem that needs to be addressed.  California should be investing more in our schools if students are to succeed, yet the deep budget cuts made in recent years by the Governor and the Legislature have done the opposite.  

“The latest federal Adequate Year Progress report, however, highlights the urgent need to improve.  Under the federal Adequate Yearly Progress measure for the 2009-2010 school year, 675 schools were newly identified as failing to meet AYP criteria for the second year in a row – a two and a half times increase from the previous school year.  

“The conflicting results of the state and federal measurements reaffirm the claim that our state’s schools and educators are overburdened with mandates.  While ensuring accountability is important, we need to free up our educators so that less time is spent on paperwork and focusing on overlapping mandates and more of their time can be spent focusing on providing quality education to students.”