Nine of 23 schools don’t make ‘adequate yearly progress’; officials say test itself is failing schools

Test results for the federal No Child Left Behind program gave an "F" to the Tooele County School District and nine of its 23 schools. As a consequence, federal funds will be withheld from two Title I schools in the district that failed to make progress under NCLB. But district officials, like educators throughout the state, say the test too often brands good schools as failures.

Schools that qualify for federal Title I funds have a high population of socio-economically disadvantaged children who qualify for free or reduced lunches and other federally funded programs. Title I funds pay for those programs.

In 2005-06, only three schools in Tooele County failed to make "adequate yearly progress" as measured by the test. This is the first year since NCLB was enacted by President Bush in 2002 that the entire school district was considered out of compliance because of a dip in high school math scores in a year when testing standards were raised and a lack of academic progress by students with disabilities in grades 3 through 8.

The goal of NCLB is to have all students in the country performing at grade level in reading and math by the year 2014. To reach that goal, tests get progressively more difficult. Schools are required to meet standards set for testing participation, academic achievement in language arts and math, and school attendance. NCLB looks at test scores according to student ethnicity, economic disadvantage, English language barriers and disability.

Mike Johnsen, superintendent for the Tooele County School District, said NCLB is set up to focus on student populations that are having the most difficulty working on grade level in reading and math. However, problems arise when entire schools are listed as failing when one group from the schools fails to make adequate progress.

"Before we are through, everybody will fail," said Johnsen. "NCLB is not a level playing field."

According to 2006-07 NCLB summary reports for Tooele County, most schools that failed passed all but one or two areas. For instance, Tooele High School failed to make adequate yearly progress in math this year — a year testing standards increased to include students taking applied math I and II. In prior years, only algebra and geometry students took the math test.

"It appears that the test material was not a good match for the material being taught to applied math students. But no one expected that there would be that much disparity," said Delajean Berry, director of testing for Tooele County schools.

Another Tooele County school that failed to make adequate progress was Northlake Elementary, which made progress under NCLB last year. However, Northlake's problem was with a subgroup of students that failed to reach the 93 percent attendance standard under NCLB. While the entire school's attendance was 94 percent, attendance for students with disabilities was at 91 percent. That attendance dip caused the entire school to get a "N" for both language arts and math.

"That is why my teachers are upset," said JoAn Coon, principal at Northlake Elementary.

Since Northlake is a school that receives federal Title I funds, a percentage of its Title I money will be withheld and set aside to fund possible improvements that will bring the school into compliance. If the school fails to make progress for 2007-08, the school will be placed in a school improvement category and a portion of its Title I money will be spent to fund the improvements. If the school makes adequate progress in 2007-08, Title I funds will still be set aside for one more year until the school shows sustained progress. With sustained progress, the withheld Title I funds will go back to the school.

A similar situation occurred with Stansbury Elementary School. The entire school received a "No" for both language arts and math because some students — listed on the report as 26 students with disabilities — failed to show academic progress.

Both Stansbury Elementary and Tooele High School are not Title I schools, so no money will be withheld from them.

Johnsen and Berry said withholding Title I funds can be a burden to schools because they have substantial numbers of students from low-income families.

East Elementary also failed to make adequate progress under NCLB for 2006-07 and now faces operating without significant Title I funds as a portion is set aside in case funding for school improvement is necessary.

In 2005-06, Harris Elementary, a school that receives Title I funds, failed to make adequate progress under NCLB and is facing the same process of setting aside a percentage of Title I funds. In 2007-06, Harris Elementary met the NCLB requirements, but the school must sustain its progress through 2007-08 to get those funds released.