For two years in a row, the school has seen double-digit growth in its API score.

Academic Performance Index (API) scores released by the state today indicate LAHS has risen 28 points to a score of 853. The school’s improvement follows last year’s 30 point overall increase.

“To go up two years in a row double digits doesn’t really happen,” Principal Wynne Satterwhite said. “[We are] absolutely blown away.”

Satterwhite said she believes that the scores have risen because all of the school’s subgroups rose, except eleventh grade English.

“When students who are doing well do better, your scores don’t improve,” Satterwhite said. “It’s when you can take your students who are struggling and move them up. … It’s not just that the higher students are doing better, it’s all students that are doing better.”

Higher API scores benefit students in multiple ways, both directly and indirectly. Colleges look at API scores when deciding whether to admit an applicant. Satterwhite said that scores increased partially because students began to realize the weight of academic testing.

API scores also play a role in a residential area’s housing prices, as good public school options are a selling point for realtors. Satterwhite believes that Measure A might not have passed without successful API scores.

Satterwhite said API scores are determined by many factors, with “fairly major” weight on STAR testing in an equation that also takes into account tenth grade CAHSEE results and the rigor of course loads (plus many other aspects).

Satterwhite said she gives heavy credit to the school’s teachers.

“It’s just lots of little things, but it really is teacher-driven,” Satterwhite said. “It’s the teachers that make the difference. Teachers care.”