Two hundred Oregon schools are failing to achieve adequate yearly progress in standardized test scores, as mandated by the federal No Child Left Behind Act. The state is one of a very few that overall isn't showing overall progress, according to today's Oregonian.

Unlike many other states, Oregon saw its schools do worse this year against the federal standards. Educators blamed budget cuts, which led to the largest class sizes in a generation in the 2003-04 school year, in part for the sagging achievement.

Among high schools, ratings plummeted. One-quarter of the state's high schools got a clean bill of health this year compared with more than 40 percent last year.

The school ratings come a week after state test scores showed stubbornly low reading and math achievement in high schools.

"Here we are getting another report that shows us we have work to do," Oregon Schools Superintendent Susan Castillo said. "We have some serious concerns about what is happening in our high schools. We need to dive into this data and learn everything we can from it so that we can work differently."

Some schools are on the list not because of widespread problems, but instead, for low performance among, or failing to test, a relatively small sub-set of students.

Public school defenders also point to Oregon's chronic problems with school funding, and resulting larger class sizes, as a major factor. I'd hazard to predict that winning trust and an infusion of new state funding for K-12 education from cantankerous Oregon voters will require better results first, and even then might be a tough sale.

Saying it's impossible without more money is: a) false, and b) will alienate voters further.

And the NCLB-driven accountability push will only intensify.

Supporters of the law say it is important to hold schools accountable for the performance of all their students rather than rely on averages. Too many schools have exempted many students from achievement tests or hid the low performance of some groups of students behind a schoolwide average, they say.

....In general, to hit the performance targets, Oregon schools must get 39 percent of students to pass state math tests and 40 percent to pass reading and writing tests, both schoolwide and for minority, low-income, special education and limited-English students. They are given leeway -- with the passing targets as low as 20 percent -- depending on the number of students in a group.

The federal law, derided as underfunded and unfair by most teacher groups, is not going away, said (director of the Washington, D.C.-based Center on Education Policy, Jack) Jennings, whose center has closely monitored the impact of No Child Left Behind.

The law's popularity has been bolstered by the rising test scores and school ratings this year in many other states, he said. The higher ratings in those states result partly from improvements in achievement due to teachers' hard work....Jennings said.

The performance targets currently allow 60 percent, and in some cases, up to 80 percent of students to fail while the school is still given a passing grade. The slow phase-in of higher performance targets is more than reasonable. It's up to parents of low-performing students to crack the whip. No excuses.

Parents: Remember them?

Posted by Matt Rosenberg at August 12, 2004 07:23 AM

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