[Ike] No Child Left Behind article

[Weinand, Stacey]

Here is an article that is a good summary of the NCLB Act as it relates to schools.

It's testing time for schools 
By JAY COOPER World Staff Writer 
8/25/2002
Tulsa World

Federal accountability law applies exam scores to measure progress

School administrators will pay close attention to standardized tests this year as school districts prepare for the first year of accountability under the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

"(Test scores) were not on the radar screen like it is now. This is the year where you have a performance target," said Kathy Dodd, the director of assessment for Union Public Schools.

Test scores from last school year gave schools a baseline for how much they need to improve, but this is the first year that districts must show improvement -- or be held accountable.

Each state must come up with its own way to measure a school's progress. Each state's method needs federal approval. The systems will be based predominantly on test scores.

Oklahoma will submit its proposed measurement system in January.

Officials at the State Department of Education have said the state's system will most likely be the same as the state's Academic Performance In dex - which was released last year to give schools a way to measure performance and improvement.

State Assistant Superintendent Katie Dunlap said using the Academic Performance Index was "the closest we have in Oklahoma for what they're wanting."

Although federal guidelines for measuring adequate progress have yet to be completed, they will be based on test scores and other statistics from last school year.

The state's system for measuring accountability will be based on several test scores, including core curriculum tests in math and reading for both fifth- and eighth-graders, the third grade Stanford 9 test, and end-of-instruction tests in English II and algebra for high-schoolers and the ACT test.

Scores from all of those tests will be indexed together to measure academic progress each year. Attendance, graduation and dropout rates and college remediation rates will also figure slightly into the equation.

Eventually, test scores from all grades -- third through eighth -- will be used to measure adequate yearly progress.

Schools' test results for this year will have to show improvement from last year's scores.

The amount of improvement needed varies among schools. The No Child Left Behind Act calls for all schools to have all of its students scoring "proficient" on state-mandated tests by 2012.

Oklahoma's core curriculum tests do not have a category labeled "proficient." Their categories are: "unsatisfactory," "limited knowledge," "satisfactory" and "advanced."

Jennifer Morris, the state director for the Academic Performance Index, said scores of "satisfactory" or "advanced" would count as "proficient."

Schools that performed well on tests last year have a smaller gap to close to get all of their students scoring "proficient," so less improvement will be expected from them each year.

Schools that have not performed well on standardized tests will have a greater gap, so they will have to show more improvement each year.

The target for the lower-performing schools is to improve their scores by 10 percent each year.

Schools that do not show the expected improvement for two years in a row will go on the School Improvement List.

A school on the list must provide transportation to other schools for students whose parents want them to switch schools.

A school on the School Improvement List for a second year in a row must pay for support services such as after-school or weekend tutoring.

If the school stays on the list for three years straight, the state will have the right to revise the curriculum or retrain the teachers.

A fourth year on the list could mean a school would be restructured or closed.

Some Oklahoma schools are on the school improvement list already because of a federal law that was passed before the No Child Left Behind Act became law.

The earlier law, the 1994 Improving America Schools Act, started the focus on standards and assessment. It required states to set guidelines to determine whether a school needed to improve.

In Oklahoma, schools labeled in need of improvement had 30 percent of their students scoring "unsatisfactory" on the math or reading portions of the state's core curriculum tests for two years in a row.

The No Child Left Behind Act said that schools already on the improvement list from the earlier act would automatically be placed on the new list.

Those schools will have to provide transportation to other schools this school year.

Tulsa district schools on the list are Anderson, Bryant, Springdale and Mark Twain elementary schools, and Madison and Monroe middle schools.

Tulsa Public Schools sent letters to parents of students in those schools July 29.

"There have been a fairly large number of families that have expressed interest in moving (schools)," said Robert Nelson, the district's director of testing.

Jay Cooper, World staff writer, can be reached at 581-8474 or via e-mail at jay.cooper at tulsaworld.com.