About a third of Utah schools failed to make adequate yearly progress under the federal No Child Left Behind Act, statewide reports released Monday show.
But the act has teeth for a mere fraction of those schools — the ones in low-income neighborhoods.
Those schools that receive Title I federal funds are put on what's called "school improvement" if they fail to make adequate yearly progress, or AYP, two years in a row.
Six of the Title I schools — Central Middle School in Ogden, Whitehorse High in San Juan, West Junior High and Lapoint Elementary in Uintah, East Carbon High in Carbon District and Parkview Elementary in Salt Lake City — identified last year as on "school improvement" remain there. And some are facing more severe sanctions because of their lengthy stay in the program.
Officials at the State Office of Education are meeting with Uintah and Ogden school districts to see what should happen next.
"We can't keep going business as usual in those schools. We really need to zero in on the students that need help rather than focusing on the group as a whole," said Leonard Sullivan, Uintah District curriculum and testing director. "The question is, though, will it be enough to put us over the top? The longer they are on school improvement, the harder it is going to be to get off."
Monday's reports come under the federal No Child Left Behind Act, signed into law in early 2002.
The act aims to have schools address student populations that may be falling behind academically. It requires them to publish test scores for nine different groups, including ethnic minorities, students with disabilities and children with limited English language skills.
The goal is to have all children scoring as proficient on state tests by 2014.
Movement toward the goal is measured through annual public reports on "adequate yearly progress," or AYP. This year is Utah's debut AYP report.
To make AYP, Utah schools must have 95 percent of students in each group taking language arts and math tests. They also must meet state proficiency benchmarks in those subjects or show improvement toward them.
 | Deseret Morning News graphic Who's on, who's off school sanctionsRequires Adobe Acrobat. |
Superintendents, however, have worried about the law's all-or-nothing approach. Each of a school's student subgroups must have enough students taking the tests and scoring high enough, or the whole school fails to make AYP.
In this first round of AYP reports, schools are all over the map.
Overall, 68 percent of the 775 Utah schools reported made AYP, according to individual school district reports tallied by the Deseret Morning News.
The 32 percent that didn't make AYP ranged over well-to-do areas, rural counties and inner cities.
Conversely, some inner-city and alternative schools are making the mark.
Guadalupe Schools, an alternative school for disadvantaged children, immigrants and refugees, is shouting its success from the rooftops. It tested 100 percent of its 22 eligible students, with 95 percent of them scoring as proficient in language arts, and 79 percent scoring as proficient in math — well above state benchmarks.
"We expected our students to perform well, but the high scores are well beyond our expectations," Guadalupe executive director Mike Albritton said in a prepared statement. "These scores show the success of our program and prove that at-risk children in poverty can achieve academic success when given the needed support systems."
Other Title I schools have focused energy and resources on reading and math. And some had a great showing this year.
In Weber District, all Title I schools — Club Heights, Lakeview, North Park and Washington Terrace elementaries — made AYP. So did all four Kane District Title I schools: Big Water, Kanab, Lake Powell and Valley.
Also, 11 out of 16 Title I schools made the mark in Granite School District.
But several others didn't make AYP.
In Davis, all 14 Title I schools failed to make AYP this year and have entered what some term "alert status." The district — like Cache, Duchesne and several others — is working to get those students the resources they need to succeed, Davis spokesman Chris Williams said. The schools will announce improvement plans in January.
"We are going to focus on addressing specific individual needs for the students rather than reaching a benchmark," Williams said. "If we only focus on getting a school off (the school improvement designation), it would be teaching for tests, and we don't believe in that."
If Davis Title I schools, however, fail to make AYP on next spring's test, they enter what the federal government deems "school improvement."
And that's where sanctions start.
The first year in school improvement, schools have to notify parents they can send their children to another, higher-performing school, possibly on the district's dime. After six years, the state can take over the school.
Last year, the federal government announced that 22 Utah schools — a list whittled to 18 following appeals to the State Office of Education — were put on school improvement.
Those schools, however, can get off the list by making AYP two years in a row.
Most of the Utah schools on that list last year did just that.
Jordan District's Mountview Elementary, however, did so somewhat unconventionally. While the school didn't make AYP, the district's poverty shifted, and Mountview and four other schools lost their Title I status, district Title I director Jim Madsen said.
But six remain.
East Carbon, Whitehorse and Parkview all made AYP this year. Next spring, if they repeat the achievement, they'll come off school improvement.
"To me it goes to show that with hard work and some strategic planning these schools can get off school improvement designations," said Jason Olsen, spokesman for the Salt Lake City School District. "Once a school is on the list doesn't mean they will never get off."
Central Middle School in Ogden and Lapoint Elementary and West Junior High in Uintah, however, didn't make AYP this year. But at least for Central, the all-or-nothing AYP approach is deceiving.
The school pulled up student achievement for every student group.
But the school's test participation trumped that success on the report. Despite efforts to get students to school on test days, the school only cleared the 95 percent participation hurdle for Caucasians taking the math test. Other participation numbers hovered between 90 percent and 94 percent.
"We are encouraged with what we're seeing there," said Reed Spencer, who oversees curriculum and assessment for Ogden School District. "This is arguably the most at-risk school in Utah, and they made jumps in nearly every category. We hope that can be sustained."
Contributing: Laura Warner
E-MAIL: jtcook@desnews.com; terickson@desnews.com