Two of three schools meet NCLB goals

By GINA KINSLOW
Glasgow Daily Times

CAVE CITY August 07, 2008 12:34 pm

— Caverna Independent School District learned earlier this week that two of its three schools met all goals set forth by the federal No Child Left Behind act.
The only school that did not meet its goals was Caverna Middle School. The school met nine of 10 goals, but did not make adequate yearly progress in reading and math.
“The school met all of its goals for all subgroups, but didn’t make AYP because of the (Kentucky Core Content) test score from 2006-07,” said Dr. Sam Dick, superintendent.
Adequate yearly pro-gress, or AYP, refers to the minimum improvement required of each school and district over the course of one year, according to information from the Kentucky Department of Education (KDE). It is measured by the growth in the percentage of students scoring proficient or above in reading and math, assessing improvement on the “other academic indicator,” and testing at least 95 percent of enrolled students and student subpopulations.
“For elementary and middle schools, the other academic indicator is their classification under CATS (Meet Goals; Progressing, Assistance). For high schools, it’s the graduation rate. Middle schools don’t have a graduation rate, so they can’t be held accountable for that,” said Lisa Gross, spokesperson for KDE. “NCLB requires that schools also be held accountable based on an ‘other academic indicator,’ along with the reading and math requirements. The U.S. Department of Education’s technical guidance says that the other academic indicator should be graduation rates for high schools and should be tied to academic performance for elementary and middle schools.”
CMS, which is a Title I school, hasn’t made AYP for four years, and that, coupled with not reaching its goal this year, finds the school classified as Tier 3 and facing NCLB consequences.
The consequences for Tier 3 is that the school has to notify parents of the status and alert them that they can choose to send their children to another school in the district. The school must also write or revise a school plan and offer supplemental services.
“Schools and districts that are funded by the federal Title I program, which provides funds to ensure that disadvantaged children receive opportunities for high-quality educational services, will be subject to federal consequences if they do not make AYP in the same content area in any student group for two or more consecutive years,” Gross said.
While Dick was pleased with the middle school’s overall performance and the fact the school met its target goals in reading and math, he was upset the school did not make AYP because of the “other academic indicator.”
“Basically, I’m really proud of them, because they have really changed some things and they got their scores up,” he said. “On the raw score, they made it in all groups and that is good. But this other academic indicator ... there’s nothing fair about that.”
The middle school missed making AYP by two-tenths of a point, he said.
Caverna Elementary met all 12 of its goals. “It is a Title I school, so they made AYP,” he said.
Caverna High School met eight of nine target goals.
In a student subcategory, the school did not meet math goals.
Overall, the district met AYP in both reading and math.