More schools missing targets

More schools missing targets

By Linda Shaw
Seattle Times staff reporter

The test-score targets went up. The rules changed some. But when all the complex calculations were done, Washington state had a modest increase this year in the number of schools on the needs-improvement list required under the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

Based on preliminary results released yesterday, the number of schools rose to 185 from 156 last year. The number of districts on the district needs-improvement list stayed the same at 29. It includes six Seattle-area districts: Highline, Lake Stevens, Marysville, Seattle, Stanwood and Renton.

Eight schools, mostly in Eastern Washington, moved into a level of sanctions that requires their districts to start planning to change how those schools are governed. It's the first time any schools in this state have reached that level.

A few schools — including one each in the Tacoma and Clover Park school districts — earned their way off the list.

The final numbers will come out in October, after all appeals are decided.

Some schools missed the test-score targets by just a little. Rainier View Elementary in Seattle missed in one category, and then only by the equivalent of 1.5 students. The district plans to appeal.

Principal Cathy Thompson said the No Child Left Behind law helps schools improve, "but it's awfully hard to be a school on that list."

Information

Complete list of schools: www.k12.wa.us

The state Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) yesterday released the needs-improvement list and reiterated its ongoing concerns about what it sees as the law's shortcomings.

Congress passed the law in 2001. Its cornerstone is tracking student progress in reading and math, with the goal of all students passing their state's tests by 2014.

Superintendent of Public Instruction Terry Bergeson said the law is too complex and doesn't always reward schools that make progress. "We're going to lose the impact of the meaning of accountability," she said.

She advocates judging schools by how much they gain each year, not whether they hit a preset target.

But Eric Earling, a regional representative for the U.S. Department of Education, said the law is "definitely creating an intensive focus on children that are falling behind, and that's the whole idea."

In Washington, schools and districts are judged by reading and math scores on the Washington Assessment of Student Learning (WASL), now taken in grades four, seven and 10. (Next year, the law requires reading and math WASLs in grades three, five, six and eight as well.)

To make what the law calls "adequate yearly progress," schools must, in general, ensure that a certain percentage of students passes tests in reading and math. The schools must show the same level of achievement in each of eight subgroups: five ethnic groups, and students who are learning English, in special-education programs or who live in poverty.

This year, as in the past, the OSPI successfully lobbied for changes that add more breathing room.

One reason the district needs-improvement list didn't grow this year was that educators got one big break: For the first time, districts fell short if they missed targets in all grades for one subject, not just in one grade and subject.

Test-score targets rose this year, however, after three years at the same level. OSPI previously negotiated a stair-step plan where the targets take one big jump every third year, rather than smaller increases every year.

For 116 of the schools on the list, the not-enough-progress label can be moot.

Those are the schools that don't receive any dollars from the federal Title I program, which provides support to students from low-income families. Those schools don't face sanctions.

For the 69 schools on the list in the Title I program, the law outlines sanctions that get progressively tougher each year. All school districts on the needs-improvement list receive Title I funds.

States don't have to follow the federal law — but then they would forgo federal support. In Washington state, that would amount to roughly 10 percent of school funding.

Linda Shaw: 206-464-2359 or lshaw@seattletimes.com

Copyright © 2005 The Seattle Times Company