Hermosa Beach City School District Ratings

If the Hermosa Beach Schools were not worth saving then the people who are trying to save them might just be considered emotional or nostalgic or something other than logical. So let's take a look at the quality of the schools here.

GreatSchools.org ranks schools using a variety of test scores. Their relevant results are:
LAUSD ranking - 4 out of 10
Hermosa Beach Schools ranking - 10 out of 10

2010 Growth API Report
LAUSD - 709
Hermosa Beach City Elementary - 936
Manhattan Beach Unified - 926


LA Times:
LAUSD - why bother
Hermosa Valley Elementary

• API Rank 10/10
• API Index - 937
• Math Proficiency - 86.8%
• English Proficiency - 86.9%

Hermosa View Elementary

• API Rank 10/10
• API Index - 938
• Math Proficiency - 88%
• English Proficiency - 88%

Manhattan Beach - Pennecamp

• API Rank 10/10
• API Index - 957
• Math Proficiency - 94.8%
• English Proficiency - 89.3%

I don't know why there are differences in the rankings reported in different places. Manhattan Beach has five elementary schools, and I did not feel like doing more data entry. Manhattan beach outperforms Hermosa Beach in some rankings, and Hermosa ranks higher in others. LAUSD is a no show. Not worth even mentioning.

From these numbers it is very obvious that Hermosa Beach schools are very good. By one ranking I saw, they were in the top 30 in the state of California. Remember, that California has the 8th largest economy in the world, and Hermosa Beach City School District was ranked 30th in California. Worth saving?

Also remember that the difference between good schools and bad schools can be responsible for as much as a 30% difference in home prices. Are you interested in your kids' future? Are you interested in the future competitiveness and economic success of California and the United States? Do you care if your home falls in value by $150,000 to $1,000,000 ? Then let us all make sure that the Hermosa Beach schools stay solvent, successful, and really really good.

STRATEGIC PLANNING COMMITTEE MEETING
Thursday, March 3, 2011 @ 6:00PM

Hermosa Valley School, Multipurpose Room
1645 Valley Drive • Hermosa Beach, CA

Hermosa Beach City Council
Peter Tucker           Mayor                         peter@electpetertucker.com
Howard Fishman    Mayor Pro Tempore  kkfish@earthlink.net
Jeff Duclos             Councilmember         jeff@jeffduclos.com
Patrick "Kit" Bobko Councilmember         kit.bobko@gmail.com
Michael DiVirgilio    Councilmember         mdivir@gmail.com

Councilmembers' phone number (310) 318-0216
Councilmembers' fax number (310) 372-6186

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Would a LA Unified School District Takeover of the Hermosa Beach School Really Be So Bad?

In the last two post I have highlighted studies showing that the quality of the local schools is a huge factor in property values and home prices.  These studies showed the results in different ways.  For example one showed that a 1% change in pass rates resulted in a 1% change in property values, in the same direction of course.  Other studies showed that people would pay a large premium to live in a neighborhood with good schools over living in a similar neighborhood with bad schools.

Then we must ask the question, would turning over the Hermosa Beach City School District to the Los Angeles Unified School District ( LAUSD ) be so bad?  Let me give you some numbers.

The California Department of Education ranks schools using the Academic Performance Index, or API.  There are different indices withing the API, and we will look at the API Growth Index. In 2010, Hermosa Beach Schools earned an API of 936!  This is a great score, ranking the Hermosa Beach City School District in the very top of California schools.  LAUSD earned a score of 709.  LAUSD's API ranking was 24% lower than the Hermosa Beach City School District API ranking.  Does that mean that handing over the Hermosa Beach schools to LAUSD will cause Hermosa Beach home prices to fall 24%?  Maybe not.  Maybe we will get lucky and home prices in Hermosa Beach will only fall by 15%!  Or maybe we won't be so lucky and home prices in Hermosa Beach will fall by 30%.

If we really want to find out what will happen when the Hermosa Beach schools are gutted, all we have to do is nothing.  As it is, the schools district doesn't have enough money, and our representatives don't have the ideas, motivation, or desire to do anything about it.

Home Value Estimate

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So enter your address above, or go to Zillow's site ( http://www.zillow.com/ ).  Type in your address, find out what your home is worth today, and play around with some numbers.  Will your home fall in value by $100k?  $300k?  $500k?  Is that OK with you?  Then sit tight, because that is what is going to happen.

Hermosa Beach City Council
Peter Tucker Mayor peter@electpetertucker.com
Howard Fishman Mayor Pro Tempore kkfish@earthlink.net
Jeff Duclos Councilmember jeff@jeffduclos.com
Patrick "Kit" Bobko Councilmember kit.bobko@gmail.com
Michael DiVirgilio Councilmember mdivir@gmail.com
Councilmembers' phone number (310) 318-0216
Councilmembers' fax number (310) 372-6186

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