Some left behind, after all

By Emily Richmond

Monday, July 24, 2006 | 7:16 a.m.

The federal No Child Left Behind Act requires schools to show regular gains in achievement with 100 percent of students demonstrating proficiency by the 2013-14 academic year.

Schools that fall short of benchmarks are placed on the state's "watch list." After two consecutive years of low scores, the school is labeled "needs improvement."

Each state was required to lay out its plan for complying with the law, including which tests it intended to use to measure student achievement. The tests must be aligned to each state's standards.

Schools must satisfy 37 benchmarks at each grade level. A shortfall in any one of the 37 benchmarks means the entire school is identified as not making adequate yearly progress, known by its acronym, AYP.

Every school must show progress, as must each identified subgroup, including those categorized by ethnicity or special-education status, as well as subgroups of non-native English speakers and students from low-income families. Schools that do not meet the threshold for AYP but reduce the number of non-proficient students by at least 10 percent are granted "safe harbor."

At least 95 percent of all students - and each subgroup - must participate in the tests. The school's average daily attendance rate must be at least 90 percent.

Schools that fail to make adequate yearly progress for one year are placed on a "watch list." Two consecutive years of falling short earns a school the label of "needs improvement." With each successive year on the list, sanctions against schools increase, from the replacement of key staff to a takeover by the state and finally the federal government.

In March, Maryland became the first state in the nation to use the federal law as grounds for a takeover, announcing it would assume control of 11 low-performing Baltimore schools.

- Emily Richmond

Don't ask Kelly Sturdy, principal of Fay Herron Elementary School, if she worries whether her job is secure, because there are more important matters she wants to discuss.

Ask her instead about the unprecedented gains her kids have shown in their reading, writing and math skills, the murals students are painting at the North Las Vegas campus or the classrooms that boast perfect attendance.

But she doesn't want to dwell on a press conference Thursday, when the spotlight will shine on her school.

That's when Clark County School District officials will announce the names of campuses that have passed federal muster - and those that haven't.

It has a bureaucratic title, of course, born of the No Child Left Behind Act that President Bush signed into law in 2001. It required, among other things, that schools make "Adequate Yearly Progress." The ones that don't, because they fall short of the standardized testing benchmarks, face escalating consequences for each successive year of low test scores. Sturdy expects her campus to be one of the dozens identified as needing improvement, despite significant increases in the percentage of proficient students schoolwide.

It would be Herron's fourth consecutive year on the state's "needs improvement" list, and that's ominous.

If a school is on the list for four years, the federal law calls for states to reorganize the school and replace key personnel, including the principal.

The prospect is enough to put any educator's stomach in knots. But Sturdy is determined to keep her cool.

"The only thing I can do right now is focus on doing the very best I can for my kids and my teachers," said Sturdy, who has spent 21 years as an educator in Clark County. "If there is somebody out there who can do better and help these students more, they should have the job."

Sturdy, who is halfway through her third year as principal at Fay Herron, said No Child Left Behind has been a mixed bag.

"I do like the focus it's putting on individual kids and identifying students who need the extra help," Sturdy said.

The downside is that an entire school can be branded as substandard, even if the achievement shortfall is in a single category. In the past a Clark County school wound up on the "needs improvement" list because two special education students were absent on the day of the testing and the participation requirement was not met.

"We get people calling up saying, 'We don't want our child at your school because it's a bad school,' " Sturdy said. "It's hard to recruit people, there are all kinds of rumors. Many people see it as a pass-fail situation with no gray area."

For the past two years AYP results for Clark County have shown strong gains in achievement by groups that are typically lower-performing - including minorities, special education students, non-native English speakers and students from low-income families.

But those gains haven't been enough to keep schools from being labeled "needs improvement" or landing on the watch list.

The goal Thursday will be to shift the focus away from the concept of "passing" or "failing" and to explain the underlying reasons some campuses continue to struggle, said Clark County Schools Superintendent Walt Rulffes.

"We're expecting to see some good news," Rulffes said. "And we'll tell people what our plans are for helping all our students make the necessary strides."

Sue Daellenbach, testing director for the district, said preliminary results indicated improvement by the district's 10th graders.

"I'm hoping we're heading in the right direction," Daellenbach said.

She understands the fears and frustrations of the district's teachers and administrators, who have come to view the annual testing as an often unfair way of labeling campuses.

"The biggest complaint I hear is, 'We're doing great things at my school, but you're looking at one test on one day,' " Daellenbach said. "School personnel take it personally and get anxious because this has serious consequences for them."

The anxiety about the scores to be released Thursday is exacerbated by last year's showing, which suffered in comparison to 2004.

Of the district's more than 300 campuses, charter schools and special programs, 115 made adequate progress in 2005, compared with 169 in 2004. Another 205 campuses failed to make the grade, up from 141 in 2004. At the same time the number of schools on the "watch" list jumped from 69 to 98. There were 107 schools on the "needs improvement" list for at least one year, up from 82. Of those schools, 13 were on the list for a third consecutive year. There were no third-year campuses in 2004.

After two consecutive years of low scores, schools find themselves on the "needs improvement" list. Each successive year brings more consequences.

After three years on the list, the Nevada Department of Education sends a review team to the campus and makes recommendations for changes. When a school has been on the list four consecutive years, heads can roll.

Clark County has 11 schools that have been on the "needs improvement" list for three consecutive years, including Herron. Each of them receives extra federal money, and are known as "Title 1" campuses, because they serve large populations of students from low-income and minority households. Two middle schools - Bridger and Charles West - have also been on the list for three consecutive years, but escaped the fourth year.

Under the law, students at "needs improvement" Title I schools are given the option to transfer to a select group of more successful schools. Not many do, however.

"If parents are satisfied with the education their children are receiving at the school, the labels don't mean very much to them anymore," Daellenbach said.

Parents have also been reluctant to take advantage of the transfers because it would mean lengthy cross-town bus rides for children used to walking to their neighborhood school.

As for Sturdy, she has the support of her staff, key district personnel and the school community to count on, regardless of which list Herron Elementary School is placed on at Thursday' press conference.

"We want to know if we met the goal line or not," Sturdy said. "And if we didn't, we're not going to pout about it. We're going to ask how we can do better."