Two of three Boulder City schools up to ‘No Child’ standards

By Jean Reid Norman

Tuesday, July 28, 2009 | 1:59 a.m.

Boulder City High School reached the high-achieving level for the third year in a row in the No Child Left Behind adequate yearly progress reports, which were released last week.

Meanwhile, Martha P. King Elementary School failed to make adequate progress for the first time since testing began seven years ago; Elton Garrett Junior High School received a passing grade after failing two years ago, allowing it to come off a watch list.

Andrew Mitchell Elementary School, which has only kindergarten through second grades, showed as having made adequate yearly progress, but Pat Skorkowsky, academic manager of the area that includes Boulder City, noted that testing doesn’t begin until third grade.

Remaining on the high-achieving list as Boulder City High has is not an easy task, Skorkowsky said. High-achieving status requires not only that enough students pass the test to make adequate yearly progress, but also that the percentage of students who pass improves by a significant amount over the previous year.

“That’s why it’s so hard to get that exemplary or high-achieving status,” he said.

Principal Ann Nelson said she was pleased with the results and said the three-year track record sets a high bar for the school.

“We have gotten it so much that it’s just kind of become our expectation,” she said.

The key to the regular improvement has been to target students who are struggling and making sure they get tutoring and other extra help, Nelson said.

“With a school the size of Boulder City High School, we have the luxury of knowing students well and knowing what they need,” she said.

In addition, at the high school level, the test for No Child Left Behind is also the high school proficiency exam that determines whether a student graduates. That gives both teachers and students extra motivation, Nelson said.

“One of our biggest things is making sure students graduate,” she said.

Last year, only four students out of a graduating class of 150 had not passed the proficiency exams by graduation day, and two of them passed after graduation, allowing them to get a diploma, she said.

This year, another four received certificates of attendance instead of diplomas at the commencement ceremony, but they also were taking the test again this month. She did not know whether they passed, but students have one year after graduation to pass the exams and trade the certificate for a diploma, she said.

King Elementary failed to make adequate yearly progress last year, because not enough special education students passed the English exams, Skorkowsky said.

“I believe it was very close to making it,” Skorkowsky said.

King incorporates its special education students into the regular classrooms and gives them extra help in a program called inclusion, Skorkowsky said.

“They address each student’s individual needs and design a program based on those needs,” Skorkowsky said.

Anthony Gelsone, who will take over as principal at King next month, said he will use his 15 years of experience in teaching special education in addressing the problem.

“When we develop a school improvement plan, we look at the areas the school is weakest in,” he said. “That will be part of the learning improvement team, which will start real soon once the school year gets started.”

Garrett Junior High made adequate yearly progress, though Principal Jamey Hood worried at the end of the school year that it might not. She motivated students to do their best on the tests with a Battle of the Bands in May. She was unavailable for comment, but Skorkowsky said the in-school concert appeared to have worked.

“When you’re trying to motivate kids to take the test seriously, then you sometimes have to use unconventional methods,” he said.