Milpitas Unified : A Rising District

Last fall I reported to the community that Milpitas Unified School District is a rising district. The evidence continues to mount that we are on the move. The accompanying graph shows a seven year comparison of the district’s API score vs. the State of California. The Academic Performance Index (API) is one measurement of the quality of a school district and Milpitas Unified is showing consistent and sustained growth. This positive, upward trend is the result of the hard work of our students and staff in our schools and the support and care of parents and families at home.

We now have three schools with API scores over 900: Curtner at 930, Sinnott at 915, and Pomeroy at 901. Milpitas High continues to show improvement with a score of 827, a growth of 15 points. Our highest growth in 2012 was achieved by Calaveras Hills High School with a growth of 71 points, moving from 570 to 631!

Our two middle schools, Rancho Milpitas and Thomas Russell, deserve special recognition for their achievements. Both of our middle schools have achieved a nine-year run of growth in their API’s and both schools are pushing 900. Rancho’s API score is 880 and Russell’s is 887. For our two middle schools to be approaching the 900 threshold is extraordinary. Our middle school teachers work hard to foster the intellectual and social-emotional growth of our students. Middle school can be a challenging stage of life but our middle schools staffs create a positive and supportive environment for our students. We are extremely proud of the achievements of our middle school students and staff and we look forward to continued improvements at Rancho Milpitas and Thomas Russell Middle Schools.

With the support of our community through Measure E, we are creating the learning environments needed to support 21st Century learning. The physical and technology improvements needed for learning are underway and we will report on those improvements in future articles. On behalf of the 10,000 students of Milpitas Unified, thank you for your investment in the next generation for their future.

Cary Matsuoka
Superintendent 

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