Parents of students at six St Joseph schools that meet federal Title One guidelines have some choices to make in the next week or so. The St Joseph School District must offer those parents the choice of another school, because for the second year in a row their current school failed to make “Adequate Yearly Progress” under the federal No Child Left Behind mandate.
Although test scores improved generally this year, no school in the St Joseph School District made Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) under the terms of No Child Left Behind mandate.
District officials say the targets of No Child Left Behind are “unrealistic and essentially unattainable.”
Eventually ALL schools, sub-groups and students must receive “advanced” or “proficient” ratings based on statewide tests. That’s roughly equivalent to every student earning A’s and B’s.
Many of the schools in the district made progress as a whole, but were held back by the performance of certain sub-groups addressed by the federal law. These include categories based on race, language proficiency and income level.
The school district released documentation that shows how each school in the district fared (click here), as well as how those sub-groups performed (click here).
Assistant Director of Elementary Education Brian Schindorf tells us parents need to look closely at the numbers, and then look closely at their school. Schindorf says many of the schools that are required to offer school choice are actually outperforming the schools being offered as alternatives.
Here’s Schindorf from Thursday’s news conference.
Superintendent Melody Smith says she is both pleased and disappointed with results from the recent Missouri Assessment Program tests. She says the district continues to make progress, although not as defined by the federal and state governments. She credits that to parents and teachers being committed to increased performance.
District officials say 1,677 families were mailed letters last week, alerting them that their Title One schools had failed to make AYP for the second year in a row. That triggers federal requirements that the family be offered a choice to attend school elsewhere. But not just anywhere. If they want children to ride to school on a bus they must select a qualifying school within their geographic area We asked Schindorf what parents should do if they’ve received one of the letters.
[audio:http://www.stjosephpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/AYP-longform1.mp3|titles=AYP longform]District officials pointed out another problem arising from No Child Left Behind. Pershing (which scored above the state average) and Hyde (which scored above the district average) did not make AYP this year. Thus, under the rules of No Child Left Behind, they cannot accept transfer students from Title One schools that did not meet AYP.
Officials say 44 families were mailed letters informing them that the school choice offered last year was no longer available and they would have to choose again.