TRACY — The upward trend in state test scores for the Tracy and Manteca unified school districts continued last week with the release of the latest Academic Performance Index, or API, numbers.

The purpose of the API is to measure the academic performance and growth of a school site through test scores. Depending on how they did, schools are given a numeric index that ranges from 200 to 1000.

The statewide API target for all schools is 800. Schools falling below that mark are expected to improve their scores by at least 5 percent each year until reaching 800.

"We are very pleased with our numbers," said Manteca Unified Superintendent Jason Messer, whose district now has six schools with a score better than 800. "I believe it's a product of our very committed teaching and support staff that does an outstanding job of focusing on what needs to be done."

Messer said he was particularly pleased with French Camp School, whose strong scores brought it out of "program improvement" status in the eyes of the state.

"That is absolutely huge," Messer said. "French Camp coming out of program improvement is a great achievement that shows our hard work is paying off."

The students of French Camp were recently treated to a special helicopter landing at the campus as part of their reward.

As for the negatives to be found in Manteca's numbers, Messer pointed toward the performance of some categories of students, whose scores

"That is definitely an area that has our attention," he said. "The scores of some English-language learners and special education students are lagging behind. We are continuing to focus on those areas and I am confident they will begin to ratchet up."

In Tracy Unified, Carol Anderson-Woo, director of curriculum and accountability, said all but three schools met their growth targets.

"And a number of them far exceeded their targets" she added. "Monte Vista had a 59-point gain, Kelly had a 40-point gain and Villalovoz had a 36-point gain. Those are impressive numbers."

Anderson-Woo credited Tracy Unified's "data teams" with plotting the district's course of success.

"The system involves assessing students before instruction to see what they know, so we can use that information in determining what areas to focus on," she said. "And then we look at the results to see what worked."

Tracy Unified's results also were not without their negatives, with three schools failing to hit their marks.

Among those schools was Delta Island, which the school board recently closed. The other sites included Stein, an alternative high school, and South/West Park school.

"South/West Park has had growth in the past, so that one has us scratching our heads a little bit," Anderson-Woo said. "They are not exactly on a downward spiral — they have great teachers out there — but we do want to figure out what happened."

Despite the few hiccups, Anderson-Woo still anticipates overall district scores continuing to rise.

"I think we are on the right track and really starting to hit our stride," she said. "The challenge now is that we can't just rest on our laurels. We have to keep finding ways to accelerate student achievement."

As Messer noted, the success of all Valley districts could be affected by the continuing funding cuts to education.

"The budget will eventually have an impact on test scores, there is no sugarcoating that," he said. "But even with the havoc with the budget, our staff is still very, very committed to what they are doing."