Fewer schools get high ratings

Monday, July 25, 2005 | 11:08 a.m.

The Clark County School District expects to have more than a dozen schools identified as "high achieving" under the federal No Child Left Behind Act, which recognizes outstanding performance on standardized tests:

John C. Bass, Kay Carl, Roberta C. Cartwright, Linda Rankin Givens, Judy & John Goolsby, Estes McDoniel, Ethel W. Staton, Marion Cahlan.

Elton M. Garrett, Laughlin

Advanced Technologies Academy, Community College High School (East, South and West campuses), Las Vegas Academy of International Studies, Performing and Visual Arts

Special Programs: John F. Miller, Helen J. Stewart

Fifteen Clark County School District campuses and two special programs are expected to be named as "high achieving" under the federal No Child Left Behind Act, down from 19 for the prior academic year.

But none of Clark County's 301 schools earned the top designation of "exemplary," down from three campuses for the 2003-04 school year.

Two of those past "exemplary" schools, Advanced Technologies Academy and Garrett Middle School in Boulder City, were among the 15 schools identified this year as "high achieving." Lyons Elementary School, an "exemplary" campus last year, did not make this year's "high achieving" list.

"These are very difficult goals to obtain and we're proud of the schools that got as high as they did," said Agustin Orci, co-interim superintendent of the district. "Of course, we're disappointed anytime we don't have all of our schools at the top of every list."

In order to be designated as "high achieving," schools must post standardized test scores that are "significantly greater" than the state-required minimum for demonstrating "Adequate Yearly Progress."

A school may also be named "high achieving" if it reduces its percentage of "non-proficient" students by at least 10 percent over the prior year's results.

"Exemplary" status requires at least half of a school's students score in the top quarter nationally on standardized tests.

Two Clark County middle schools, Harney and West-Edison, are poised for placement on the state's list of "greatest need" campuses because of the number of criminal citations issued at the school during the last academic year.

Under No Child Left Behind, schools that exceed the allowable percentage of criminal citations for three consecutive years are identified as "persistently dangerous."

Currently no Nevada school has met the threshold for that designation. Garside Middle School worked its way off the state's watch list after being named in "greatest need" last year.

Additionally, two of the district's special education centers for chronic truants and students with emotional issues -- Biltmore Continuation School and Morris Behavior Program -- also exceeded the allowable percentage of citations.

Edward Goldman, associate superintendent of education services for the district, said he plans to appeal to the state.

"These are kids with some serious problems, that's why they're sent there in the first place," Goldman said. "It doesn't make sense to hold them to the same threshold as a traditional school setting."

The federal education reform act allowed each state to write its own definition of "persistently dangerous." For a school to meet the requirement in Nevada, the number of criminal citations issued must exceed 2 percent of enrollment at campuses with fewer than 750 students, 1.75 percent at schools with up to 1,500 students and 1.5 percent at the state's largest campuses.

At West-Edison there were 28 citations, equaling 2.8 percent of the enrollment of 997 students, Goldman said. Harney Middle School had 33 citations issued, equaling 1.79 percent of its enrollment of 1,844.

Goldman said the designations can be misleading because they may be more of a reflection of the safety of a campus than the subjective judgment of the police officers who decide when a situation warrants and criminal citation and when it does not.

"There's a lot of discretion here," Goldman said. "That's why it can alarm people unnecessarily if they just look at the label."

The Clark County School Board will hear its annual AYP report Thursday, with campuses that did not meet the requirements for a first year being placed on the state's "watch list."

In order to make AYP, schools must show gains on standardized tests both campus-wide and by all student subgroups, including ethnicity, socio-economic status, special education and limited-English proficiency. A 95-percent participation rate must all be met, again both school-wide and for each subgroup.

Schools that do not show AYP for two consecutive years are labeled "needs improvement" and face sanctions. The district is required to offer transfers to students from low-achieving, Title I schools -- which receive extra federal money for serving students from predominantly low-income families -- to more successful campuses.

For the 2003-04 academic year 130 campuses, 43 percent of the district's schools, did not make AYP. Additionally 82 campuses were identified as "needs improvement." District officials have said they expect both of those numbers to rise this year as the threshold for performance on student test scores continues to rise, along with the percentage of students with limited skills in English.