Analysis:

At the Jan. 8 Newport-Mesa School Board meeting, a group of parents calling themselves the Mesa Verde Education Committee strongly criticized all facets of Adams Elementary School, from school leadership and student safety to test scores.

Adams supporters responded in kind, speaking out at the Jan. 23 school board meeting and challenging critics to visit the school and give it a chance.

The foundation for much of the criticism are Adams’ state and federal test scores. Interpreting standardized test scores is not easy. But conclusions can easily — and inaccurately — be drawn, depending on how the numbers are interpreted. Below are some beliefs repeated about Adams’ scores on Daily Pilot blogs, and the truths behind them.

Belief: Adams annually falls below state-recommended test scores.

False. While state education officials have made an Academic Performance Index score of 800, on a scale of 200 to 1,000, the goal for all public schools in California, schools were given no timeline to reach it. Instead, each school is assigned its own growth target, or points it should increase every year. For Adams, in recent years it’s been about 5 points a year.

Since the API was introduced, Adams has met its target every year except for the 2001-02 academic year. In 1999, Adams scored 661. The most recent scores put Adams at 760.

Belief: All subgroups except white students score below state recommendations.

False. For teaching strategy purposes, students are broken up into “subgroups.” Scores can be analyzed by groups such as race, socio-economic or disability status, or English-speaking ability. Just as the school as a whole has a growth target, so do the subgroups.

According to last year’s scores, white, Latino and English-learning students met their targets. Socio-economically disadvantaged students needed to improve their score by 5 points, but improved by 4.

The state test takes into account that students and schools start at different distances from the same 800-point goal. Federal scores mandated by No Child Left Behind do not.

Belief: Adams Elementary School does not have the best scores in the district, or best compared to similar schools.