Idyllwild Elementary School students produced the highest Annual Performance Index 2013 growth scores of the 14 elementary schools in the Hemet Unified School District. Idyllwild School had an API of 908.

The API is an index that captures the results of language and math achievement tests for the individual grades into one value for the whole school or district.

“We did really well,” said Idyllwild Principal Matt Kraemer. “I’m very pleased.”

As a district, HUSD dropped seven points from its 2012 base. Hemet High School improved its API two points to 758.

Within HUSD, the Western Center Academy, a middle school located at the Western Science Center (formerly the Western Center for Archaeology and Paleontology) near Diamond Valley Lake in Hemet, had the highest API — 948 — within the district.

For the past three years, Cottonwood was the elementary school with the highest API, but its score fell to 851 this year and Idyllwild rose to the top.

“I was worried, but we worked as a team and focused on student achievement,” Kraemer said proudly and credited his faculty for its instructional quality.

Idyllwild’s standardized testing scores for English and math were marginally better last spring, but the results were sufficient to garner its fourth-consecutive improving API score.

The Federal goal is for a school score of 800 or better. The API ranges from a low of 200 to a maximum of 1000.

HUSD had six schools achieve this level, one less than a year ago. Idyllwild School’s first exceeded the state API goal in 2007, when students took the local index from 791 to 824. This is the seventh consecutive year Idylliwlld’s API has exceeded 800.

Idyllwild Hemet Unified
Year API District API
2013 908 754
2012 900 761
2011 873 755
2010 844 754
2009 840 742
2008 838 731
2007 824 719
2006 791 710
2005 780 693
2004 763
2003 781
2002 752
2001 749
2000 754