Yet the school has an API of 751, putting it in the top 10 percent among schools with similar characteristics. Costano has worked hard to align its curriculum to state standards, testing students at the end of each unit with an exam that tracks their progress against the state benchmarks. Students who fall behind attend after-hours tutoring and Saturday school. The campus also benefits from an active partnership with Cisco Systems and a number of high-tech companies in the Menlo Business Park across the street. We get our test scores and analyze them.
Children know what their test scores are.
We set individual goals. Students begin each day with a brief assembly and pep talk from the principal. Sacramento's Elder Creek Elementary has the largest population of Mien students of any school in the country, and 68 percent of its students are learning English as a second language. Despite these obstacles, Elder Creek has an API of 756, ranking it among the top 20 percent of all elementary schools in the state. They're excited about learning.