Schools await results of progress reports.

Byline: Anne Williams The Register-Guard

The state Department of Education is scrambling this week to finish crunching new student test score data for its second annual draft report on school performance under the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

The massive document, scheduled for public release next week, will include report cards for every school and district in the state, showing whether they made "adequate yearly progress" under the stringent standards of the Bush administration's education reform law.

Last year, 329 of the state's 1,216 public schools failed to hit one or more of the targets required to show adequate yearly progress, or AYP.

While the publicized label of "needs improvement" is enough to make any school administrator flinch, the stakes are highest for schools receiving federal Title I money, which is earmarked for schools with comparatively high poverty rates to help boost reading and math instruction.

Most Oregon school districts funnel their Title I money to elementary schools, believing that's where they get the most "bang for the buck."

Title I schools face escalating sanctions if they repeatedly miss the mark. The second year in a row, for example, they must notify parents, offer transfers and provide tutoring to struggling students. After six years, they risk having to reopen as a charter school or undergo some other kind of major restructuring.

Educators say it's difficult to dodge AYP pitfalls, especially at middle and high schools and in schools with large populations of poor, minority or special-needs students.

"When you look at all the indicators, you can tell you're just going to see an increasing number of schools and districts that aren't making it," said former Bethel Superintendent Kent Hunsaker, who is now executive director of the Confederation of Oregon School Administrators.

With the aim of closing the so-called "achievement gap" between students of different races and family incomes, No Child Left Behind categorizes students in nine different subgroups: Caucasian, Asian, African-American, Hispanic, Native American, multiracial students, students with limited English, students with disabilities and economically disadvantaged students. A subgroup must have at least 21 students or it's not a valid sample.

Each subgroup, not just the total student body, must meet targets in performance and in participation on state tests. In Oregon, the participation rate must be 95 percent and the test-passing rate 40 percent on reading/writing tests and 39 percent on math.

Barring any significant change in the law, those percentages will ratchet up annually until 2014, when 100 percent are required to pass.

The state uses the average of two years' worth of test scores in its calculations. Tests were administered in the spring of 2003 and 2004.

State officials wouldn't share guesses as to how schools will fare this year compared to last. The first batch of Oregon Statewide Assessment scores - on reading and math multiple choice tests given to grades 3, 5, 8 and 10 - will be released Thursday, but the data from the writing and math problem-solving tests were still being processed. State education officials use scores from all four tests to calculate whether a school made AYP.

Next week's report is preliminary; school districts will have a couple of months to appeal designations before the final report comes out in November.

Tom Henry, assistant superintendent for instruction in the Eugene School District, said he's cautiously optimistic. Last year, two elementary schools (both of them Title 1 schools), seven middle schools and all but one high school failed to make AYP, as did the district overall.

"I project that we will have a few more schools meet than we did last year," Henry said.

Responding to an outcry from educators around the country, the U.S. Department of Education allowed states greater flexibility this year in how to calculate whether a school made AYP.

A key change means that schools will be considered to be in need of improvement only if AYP targets aren't met in the same area, such as reading or math, for two years in a row. Previously, it took just once to miss the mark.

Another change has to do with special education. Previously, special education students were held to the same testing standards as other kids for the purposes of AYP. Now, districts can use alternative standards for students with significant cognitive delays.

That group of students can make up no more than 1 percent of the total enrollment, although districts can request a waiver to that if their special education populations are significantly higher, said Eric Earling, a regional representative for U.S. Education Secretary Rod Paige.

Two changes affect the calculation for students with limited English proficiency. In essence, scores from a student new to an English Language Learner program won't be counted the first year, and scores from students who have left ELL programs may still be counted in the ELL subgroup for up to two years.

"These respond to the four key areas we've heard the most about," said Earling, noting that while no further changes are planned, the administration always "has an ear open to constructive suggestions and reasonable opportunities to add flexibility that make sense within the spirit of the law."

Courtney Vanderstek of the Oregon Education Association characterized the changes as "little tweaks." Her union, like many education organizations, has criticized No Child Left Behind for being inflexible, punitive and underfunded.

"They don't really have that much impact in changing the direction, which is to really punish schools by using an all or nothing approach," she said.

The state also has made some of its own changes - for instance, last year it asked districts to query students as to whether they had Internet access at home and considered all those who answered "no" as "economically disadvantaged."

This year, "economically disadvantaged" will refer to students who qualify for free or reduced price meals under the federal School Lunch Program.

Some of the changes make it easier to make AYP, but some make it harder, said Jon Bridges, a specialist in the state Department of Education's assessment office. In any case, comparing this year's ratings with last year's won't be apples to apples, Bridges said.

"It's hard to tell what the numbers will look like because the rules have changed," he said.

While "making AYP" has quickly become a critical goal for schools, it hasn't resonated much with parents. Even at the schools that didn't make it last year, principals said they heard nary a word about it either then or last spring as parents checked out kindergartens.

Parents ask about test scores, Harris Elementary Principal Gig Nelson said, but even that seems to be secondary to school climate.

"I think they are more interested in what's inside and what the school is all about," said Nelson, whose Title I school made AYP last year.

"I think we feel that we give a good, sound education, and that's what my staff is dedicated to - what's best for kids."

REPORT TIMELINE

The state Department of Education will soon release Oregon Statewide Assessment scores as well as a report showing which schools made adequate yearly progress, or AYP, under the federal No Child Left Behind Act. The release timeline is:

Thursday: Results for the reading and math multiple choice tests

Aug. 12: Preliminary report showing which schools demonstrated "adequate yearly progress"

Later in August: Results for the writing and math problem solving tests

November: Final report showing which schools made AYP; also in November, the state will release its own school report cards, which rate schools on test scores and other indicators