Fewer schools hit yearly-progress goal

The number of schools meeting yearly goals set by the federal government dropped in 2010, according to preliminary results released yesterday by the Winston-Salem Forsyth County Schools.

As part of the federal No Child Left Behind law, schools are measured each year on Adequate Yearly Progress in such categories as test scores, percentage of students tested, attendance and graduation rates. If a school misses its goal in even one category, it doesn't make AYP.

ONLINE: Click here for a list of preliminary AYP results by county. (PDF)

ONLINE:Click here for a complete list of all 2010 preliminary AYP results.

In 2009, 50 of 75 local schools, or 67 percent, met their AYP goals. In 2010 that number dropped, to 43 of 80 schools, or 54 percent. The total number of schools differs because three new schools have opened since last year and not all schools were included in the preliminary results released last year.

Meeting 100 percent of their goals this year were:

• 31 of the 44 elementary schools, or 70 percent.

• Six of the 17 middle schools, or 35 percent.

• Six of the 19 high schools, or 32 percent.

In part, the overall decline can be attributed to a bump that school systems received last year when the practice of retesting was introduced and the evaluation system was adjusted.

"Using retests for the first time last year created a one-time jump in the safe-harbor provision for elementary and middle schools," Superintendent Don Martin said. "I think it's good to see how many schools were able to sustain the success they had the previous year."

The number of categories that a school is measured on varies. For instance, Whitaker Elementary School had nine goals, while Brunson Elementary School had 25.

If a school has 40 or more students in a subgroup -- such as black, Hispanic, economically disadvantaged, etc. -- those students are considered separately, and each subgroup has to meet goals in reading proficiency, math proficiency and percentage of students tested.

Each school can have up to 41 goals, or targets.

Students in certain subgroups, particularly those who are learning English and or have disabilities, are more likely to have difficulty with the tests. And, in a couple of subgroups -- including one for students with disabilities who are on an occupational course of study -- the federal government had not approved the state test so those students were categorized as "not tested" even though they had been.

At East Forsyth High School, that meant that the school did not meet AYP.

"Our problem has been that it's an all-or-nothing measure," said Theo Helm, a spokesman for the school system.

That said, Helm said, "the goal is for all schools to make AYP. There is room for improvement."

Scott Baker, an associate professor of education at Wake Forest University, said that, overall, he thought the results were positive.

"That's good that schools are making progress," Baker said.

In the bigger picture, though, he said, he is not a big fan of the No Child Left Behind law, in part because having so many categories penalizes diversity.

"The more diverse you are, the harder it is to make AYP," he said.

Making schools more diverse should be a goal, and with that in mind, he said he thinks that the evaluation system should be designed to reward rather than penalize diversity, he said.

Also, educators working to improve schools need more flexibility, he said.

"I think there are a lot of structural problems with the law," Baker said.

In 2009, he noted a correlation between schools that didn't meet their goals and schools with high percentages of minority students and students on free or reduced-price lunch. He noticed a similar correlation this year.

"I think the community mistakenly moved away from desegregated schools," Baker said.

As a whole, the school system met 66 of its 78 federal targets.

"The best way to look at performance is how the school system did as a whole," Martin said.

"It eliminates some of the irregularities that can arise with small sample sizes at individual schools. I'm pleased at how we did as a school system, and we will be studying the targets we did not meet."

kunderwood@wsjournal.com
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