I see & read something like this, and I'm just speechless. CA teachers largely the highest paid teachers in all the country, with CA having largely the highest state sales tax in the country, and these are our results?? And worse, the unions are demanding more in the way of higher taxes to ........ what? Make sure that 35% gets down to 25%??
State falling way behind No Child Left BehindNanette Asimov, Chronicle Staff Writer
Friday, September 5, 2008California schools, required by the federal No Child Left Behind Act to lift more students over a higher academic hurdle this year, instead stumbled and slipped back, as nearly 1,400 fewer schools met test-score targets.
The number of schools making "adequate yearly progress" plunged from 6,488 to 5,113 since last year, according to state educators who released school progress reports Thursday.
That's a drop from 67 to 52 percent of the state's public schools. (That's largely HALF the public schools, folks)
Officials said more schools faltered because No Child Left Behind requires a higher percentage of their students this year to have proficient scores in English and math on statewide exams - 35 percent of students this year from about 25 percent last year.
And it's only going to get tougher. The percentage of students who must do well on the tests will rise steadily each year until 2014, when all students will be required to score at the proficient level in English and math - hence the name "No Child Left Behind."
It could spell trouble for every school in the state.
"We know that if you're not over this bar now, it's going to become very difficult," said state Superintendent Jack O'Connell, adding that he has yet to see any school where all students score proficient in math and English.
The consequences for failing apply only to schools that accept federal Title I money for low-income students. That is roughly two-thirds of the state's schools, or slightly more than 6,000. Although the federal law has been in place for six years, it remains controversial because states are required to mete out those consequences, pouring scarce resources into helping schools that might not always need much help.
Schools that fail to make adequate yearly progress for at least two years have to enter Program Improvement, a series of steps mandated by Congress to help raise test scores, such as free tutoring and teacher training. Ultimately, schools can be shut or their staff replaced if failure persists for several more years.
Program ImprovementCalifornia has 2,241 schools in Program Improvement, including 1,441 new ones announced Thursday. That's about 37 percent of all those eligible. (Schools can also raise scores and leave Program Improvement, as 116 have just done.)
The federal law is up for renewal, but has stalled in Congress until a new administration takes office in January. How much federal money to spend on No Child Left Behind, and just how much to relax its many rules and regulations, will all become part of the presidential debate on education this fall.
"We can probably expect some changes from the next administration regardless of which administration it is," said David Silver, a testing expert at UCLA's Center for Research on Education Standards and Student Testing.
"I don't think it reflects well on an administration if suddenly school performance appears to be dropping dramatically, which is what will happen as the standards rise substantially each year between now and 2014."
Silver, echoing educators across the country who marvel at the seeming impossibility of having every student proficient in six more years, called that requirement a major shortcoming of No Child Left Behind.
"It's really a political statement," he said. "We all want schools to have high standards and meet them. But it's not a realistic policy."
Different standardsStill, federal law requires all states to tell parents which schools made adequate yearly progress within a few days of the start of school so they have time to transfer their child to a higher-scoring school.
California Superintendent O'Connell, a longtime critic of the federal accountability system, took the opportunity Thursday to release the state's own school progress report. It includes the same statewide test results used by No Child Left Behind, but calculates progress using a different yardstick.
The Academic Performance Index, or API, gives every school a score on a 1,000-point scale based on its performance on the same statewide exams. A score of 800 is considered excellent, and schools are expected to improve each year by 5 percent of the difference between 800 and their existing API score. There are no threats of closure or takeover for schools that miss the mark.
Unlike No Child Left Behind, the state's version lets schools succeed merely by improving, and California schools looked pretty good this year through that lens.
This year's API shows "our schools are continuing to make real, sustained progress," O'Connell said.
Statewide, 53 percent of schools met their API targets, up from 45 percent last year. That's down from 2003, when 78 percent met targets, but their targets are higher now.
The percentage of schools scoring above 800 on the API has been steadily rising, from 20 percent in 2002 to 36 percent this year.
Is API too lax?While No Child Left Behind has been criticized for imposing unrealistic expectations on schools, the API has long earned criticism for expectations that are too lax.
This year was no exception.
"We're inching forward, but it is not sufficient," said Senate Majority Leader Gloria Romero, a Democrat from East Los Angeles who is running for O'Connell's job in 2010. "We still find a tremendous achievement gap that will take African Americans, English learners and special-education students a couple of generations to close."
The San Francisco Unified School District, meanwhile, also looked good on the API. Some of its schools improved since last year, though at a slower pace than schools statewide.
Demographic groupsOne impressive school is Hoover Middle School, which scored 818 on the API. Yet under No Child Left Behind, it's a failure, and has just been added to Program Improvement for schools that need help.
Why?
This year, federal law requires 35.2 percent (did you read that? ONLY 35%) of students to score proficient on the state's English test and 37 percent to score proficient on the math test. That happened at Hoover.
But large demographic groups of students also have to meet the proficiency requirement, and Hoover has large populations of Asian Americans, Latinos, whites, low-income students, English learners and disabled students.
Only disabled students fell short. But that was enough for the entire school to fail to make adequate yearly progress.
"I'd like to think that we are a good school," Principal Judy Dong said with a sigh. "Our staff will be looking very closely at this."
California schools 9,832 - Number of public schools in the state
5,113 - Schools -
52% - that made "adequate" progress this year under the No Child Left Behind Act
1,027 - School districts in state
400 - Districts -
39% - that made "adequate" progress this year
2,241 - Schools in an improvement program for failing to make adequate progress two years in a row
116 - Schools that left the program this year by raising scores
Source: California Department of Education article
