MORE SCHOOLS `LEFT BEHIND' 7 ADDITIONAL CAMPUSES MAY FACE SANCTIONS.

Byline: Karen Maeshiro Staff Writer

LANCASTER - Seven Antelope Valley schools have been newly designated as failing to meet academic requirements outlined in President George W. Bush's No Child Left Behind Act for two years in a row.

That brings to 48 the total number of schools in the valley that have been dubbed ``program improvement'' schools that are subject to federal requirements and possible sanctions.

The 2001 federal school accountability law requires all districts and schools to demonstrate ``adequate yearly progress,'' or AYP, with an eventual goal that all students are proficient in English and math by 2014.

But currently, the consequences of not making AYP apply only to schools receiving federal aid called Title I, which they get because they have a large proportion of pupils from poor families.

Districts with no Title I schools in program improvement were Acton-Agua Dulce Unified, Hughes-Elizabeth Lakes Union, Westside Union, Muroc Joint Unified and Southern Kern Unified.

Once identified as a program improvement school, a school advances through the program for each year it does not make AYP, and faces more requirements at the next level.

In Years One and Two, the federal mandates include providing transportation to a school of choice to students at low-performing schools, and supplemental tutoring services.

In Year Three, the school, in addition to the earlier requirements, is identified for ``corrective action'' and must either replace school staff, implement new curriculum, decrease management authority at the school level, appoint an outside expert, extend the school year or day, or restructure the school.

In Year Four, the school must prepare a plan that includes one of the following: reopen as a charter school, replace all or most of the staff including the principal, contract with an outside entity to manage the school, state takeover, or other major restructuring.

In Year Five, the plan must be implemented if AYP targets are not met.

If a program improvement school makes adequate academic progress, it does not advance to the next level of federal requirements.

One school, Antelope School in the Keppel Union School District, exited program improvement because it met its AYP targets for two consecutive years, state records show.

Eight schools that remained in Year One were Tierra Bonita South in the Eastside Union School District; Linda Verde, Jack Northrop and Sunnydale schools in the Lancaster School District; and Palmdale Learning Plaza, Chaparral, Cimmaron and Quail Valley schools in the Palmdale School District.

Antelope Valley High School and Buena Vista and Palm Tree schools in the Palmdale district remained in Year Three.

Antelope Valley High School did not advance because it is already under state sanctions, said Susan Custer, Antelope Valley Union High School District's director of program improvement.

Littlerock High School advanced to Year Four this year.

``My hope is that all the work they are doing this year will make a difference for them when they test in the spring. They are certainly taking all of this seriously,'' Custer said.

The seven schools that entered program improvement this year are Amargosa Creek Middle, Crossroads Alternative, Lincoln, Mariposa, and New Vista Middle schools in the Lancaster School District; and Golden Poppy and Los Amigos schools in the Palmdale School District.

In the 2004-05 school year, 505 California schools were newly designated as being in the improvement program, bringing the total number of schools in that category to 1,626.

Overall, 28 percent of California Title I schools are in program improvement this year, compared wit 21 percent in 2003. There are 5,714 Title I schools in the state.

``I continue to believe that California's own accountability system - the Academic Performance Index - is a fairer and more accurate measurement of school performance,'' state schools Superintendent Jack O'Connell said. ``It makes more sense to measure schools on their academic growth from year to year, and target resources to schools showing the least improvement, rather than designating schools 'passed or failed' based on whether they reached an arbitrary status bar.''

Under the No Child Left Behind, all schools must show that 100 percent of their students are proficient in English-language arts and math by 2014, a determination that will certainly result in a vast majority of schools, not only in California but nationwide, being designated as inadequate, O'Connell said.

``Once this federal measurement identifies all schools as failing, it ceases to be a meaningful accountability system,'' O'Connell said.

Schools must meet minimum proficiency, test participation and graduation rates under the No Child Left Behind.

This year, schools were required to test at least 95 percent of their students, and 13.6 percent of elementary and middle school children had to be proficient in English and 16 percent in math for schools to meet AYP performance targets.

At high schools, the numbers were lower - 11.2 percent in English and 9.6 percent in math.

Schools also had to meet a state Academic Performance Index goal of earning a minimum score of 560 or show growth of at least one point.

For the next three years, the goals will rise to 24.4 percent proficiency in English and 26.5 percent in math for elementary and middle school students, and 22.3 percent in English and 20.9 percent in math for high school students.

The API target will increase to 590.

Karen Maeshiro, [phone]

karen.maeshiro(at)dailynews.com

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SCHOOLS FALL SHORT OF GOALS