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Only half of Indiana schools made the necessary academic progress required under the federal No Child Left Behind Act this year, with northeast Indiana schools faring even worse, officials announced Wednesday.
Of northeast Indiana schools, 46 percent met the goals set forth under the law, down from 55 percent last year. Only four schools out of the 49 in the Fort Wayne Community Schools district – Croninger, Harris, Irwin and Study elementaries – met all the requirements of the federal accountability law.
The number of schools statewide that were considered passing was also down, dropping from 54 percent to 50 percent.
“It’s unacceptable that only half our schools are achieving the minimum federal standard,” State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Bennett said. “The circumstances require a renewed commitment from all Hoosiers and a sense of urgency that, sadly, doesn’t currently exist. We simply must do better.
“The bar has been raised, but if Indiana students are going to compete with their peers from across the U.S. and around the world, we must continue to raise expectations across the board.”
How schools fare on No Child Left Behind depends on how students perform on state proficiency tests. Hoosier students’ ISTEP+ scores, along with their participation on the tests and their graduation and attendance rates, determine their success or failure under the federal law.
Schools also must show achievement in various subgroups of their student population, such as black or Hispanic students, special education students and students from low-income families. When including all those subgroups, some schools must meet 37 criteria to pass the federal education mandate.
The inability to meet the improvement goals for any one of the subgroups can lead to a school being labeled as failing.
The goal of the law, spearheaded by President George W. Bush in 2002, is to have every American public school student reading and doing math at grade level by the 2013-14 school year. Each year, the benchmarks for improvement are raised.
Last year, nearly 66 percent of students had to pass ISTEP+ in English and 64 percent had to pass in math for a school to be considered making progress under No Child Left Behind. This year, when scores were taken from the fall ISTEP+ testing, 73 percent of students had to pass English and 72 percent had to pass math.
It’s this higher target that contributed to all but four of the schools in FWCS not making progress under the law, district spokeswoman Krista Stockman said.
“We were not completely surprised by the decline this year,” Stockman said. “Certainly we’re working toward those goals.”
Fort Wayne officials hope their attempts to reinvent the district’s six high schools and redesign the reading curriculum for all students will lead to improvement in coming years.
One-third of the schools in East Allen County Schools – Leo Junior-Senior High and Leo, Monroeville, Woodburn, Cedarville and New Haven elementaries – met the law’s requirements this year. Assistant Superintendent Janet MacLean did not respond to repeated requests for an interview but did provide a prepared summary of the district’s results by e-mail.
MacLean pointed to the more than 500 Burmese refugees the district has enrolled since the start of the 2007-08 school year. The students can take an alternative English portion of the ISTEP+ one time but after that must take the same test every other student does.
Three EACS schools – Highland Terrace Elementary, New Haven Middle and Southwick Elementary – did not make progress because of students with limited English skills, but other groups also contributed to the school as a whole not meeting federal requirements.
MacLean hopes the district’s long-term strategic plan, a partnership with the National Urban Alliance and a revision of the math curriculum will lead to improvement.
The state is scheduled to release results under its own accountability model – Public Law 221 – in May. Federal results will be released again this summer or in early fall based on spring ISTEP+ results.
