Tougher Standards Mean More Schools 'Failing'

Published Online: July 27, 2011

By The Associated Press

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New Orleans

States are beginning to release data on the number of schools that failed to reach adequate yearly progress goals, or AYP, under the federal No Child Left Behind Act, and the results that appear on paper are worrying state officials.

The number of Louisiana public schools considered failing—or "academically unacceptable"—jumped from 48 last year to 135 this year.

In New Mexico, 86.6 percent of schools—720 of them—missed the latest targets for boosting student achievement, up from 76.7 percent, or 634 schools, the previous year, the state’s Public Education Department reported.

North Carolina’s statewide totals aren’t yet available, but preliminary schoolhouse data show fewer than three of 10 Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools met the targets set for them in the academic year that concluded in June, and fewer than one in seven Wake County schools met their marks. In addition, more than half of the state's 99 charter schools missed targets, double the number that failed to meet them last year.

NCLB’s adequate yearly progress requirements have long been subject to criticism from educators who consider them too rigid because they take a pass-or-fail approach. The system imposes higher student achievement targets each year, with a goal of having 100 percent of students proficient in math and reading by 2014, making it highly likely that school ratings will worsen annually.

The increasing number of failing schools has generated pressure for change in state capitols across the country. The Obama Administration has urged Congress to rewrite the law and has said that unless Congress acts soon, Education Secretary Arne Duncan would consider waivers to avert a "slow-motion train wreck" for U.S. schools.

Rising Targets

Under the law, states were allowed to establish how much schools must improve each year. Many saved the biggest leaps for the final years, anticipating the law would be changed.

State officials in North Carolina said the disappointing AYP data was at least in part because last year saw a big jump in the target scores.

"Every state had to set a stair of steps to get to 100 percent of students being proficient," said Lou Fabrizio, the chief testing director for the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction. "Every three years, that stair step got higher. This is the first year of a major bump up."

In Georgia, just 63 percent of schools made AYP, compared to 71 percent last year, according to Georgia Department of Education data. Those numbers do not include Atlanta schools data because Georgia officials are trying to determine how widespread cheating revealed in a state investigation earlier this month will affect the district's federal standing.

"Every state is facing this," said Georgia schools Superintendent John Barge. "The bottom line is, in the realities of 2014, I don't think anybody thinks we'll get there."

Louisiana's education department said Tuesday that, overall, the state’s schools improved their performance scores. The higher number of failing schools is due to higher performance standards that took effect this year, it said. The figures also include "alternative schools" that serve students with academic or behavioral problems, numbers that weren’t included in last year's rankings.

"We predicted a significant increase in the number of schools that would initially fail to meet the minimum standard," Acting State Superintendent of Education Ollie Tyler said in a department news release. "But I have no doubt that we will see schools quickly overcome this status, given the history of our districts and schools in responding to tougher standards."

The Louisiana department noted that more public school students than ever are performing at the appropriate grade level, and six schools improved enough to be taken off the failing list, despite the tougher standards.

For 2011, however, the minimum score needed to avoid the "academically unacceptable school" label in Louisiana jumped to 65, up five points from last year. Next year, it goes up again, to 75. The department said that a school with the minimum score of 65 is a school where approximately 61 percent of the students are performing below grade level.

Thirty-one traditional schools—non-alternative schools that have not already been taken over by the state's Recovery School District—were added to the list of failing schools after the higher standards were applied, bringing the total number of traditional schools with the unacceptable label to 48. Within the Recovery School District, which was established by the state to take over and try to improve foundering public schools, there are 32 failing schools. Fifty-five alternative schools fell below the minimum standard.

Backlash to NCLB

An "academically unacceptable school" is required to adopt new strategies aimed at improving performance each year it fails to meet minimum standards. Those in Louisiana that fail four consecutive years can be taken over by the RSD. None of the traditional schools listed as failing Tuesday are slated for such a takeover. Some that have been failing for more than four years are operating under special agreements with state education officials.

At least three states are vowing to ignore the latest requirements under the No Child Left Behind law in an act of defiance against the federal government that demonstrates their growing frustration over an education program they say sets unrealistic benchmarks for schools.

Idaho will no longer raise the benchmarks that public schools have to meet under No Child Left Behind, nor will it punish the schools that do not meet these higher testing goals, said Tom Luna, the state's superintendent of public schools.

The federal requirements are unrealistic for schools to meet while they wait for the government to enact new education standards, he said.

"We've waited as long as we can," Luna said.

Montana and South Dakota are also rejecting the latest No Child Left Behind targets, while Kentucky is seeking a waiver that would allow the state to use a different method to measure whether students are making adequate progress under the program.

And more states could follow in seeking relief from the federal requirements.

New Mexico Public Education Secretary Hanna Skandera said the state will ask the federal government this fall to allow New Mexico to use its own school rating system rather than continue with the federally mandated model.

Under a new law enacted this year at the request of Republican Gov. Susana Martinez, the state plans to assign grades A to F to schools based mostly on student performance.

"The message couldn't be clearer: our children need education reform now," Skandera said in a statement. "Educators know almost 87 percent of our schools aren't failing, and that's why we need reforms like our A through F grading system."