Successful run under ‘No Child’ likely at end

By Emily Richmond

Friday, July 10, 2009 | 2 a.m.

Two years ago, when the Clark County School District surpassed for the first time the requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act, Superintendent Walt Rulffes was jubilant. I better not catch you calling us a failing district, he said jokingly to the assembled members of the news media as he announced results showing the district had achieved “adequate yearly progress.”

Last year, when the district once again met those standards, Rulffes crowed that Clark County was the only district among the nation’s 10 largest to earn a passing grade.

This year, there’s likely to be less celebrating.

The district isn’t expected to make adequate yearly progress, sources tell the Sun. Although remarkable gains were made at individual campuses, those performances won’t likely be enough to carry the day for the entire school system.

Such highs and lows are part of the love-hate relationship district officials have had with the No Child Left Behind Act since its passage in 2002. They have never seemed certain whether they should embrace it, ignore it or fight to replace it.

“We’ve gone back and forth on this many, many times,” said Joyce Haldeman, associate superintendent of community and government relations for the district. “Do we spend our time educating the public on how unrealistic the goals are, or do we spend our time educating children? We’ve chosen the latter.”

A sliver of hope remains that the district could still make adequate yearly progress, or AYP, this year, as officials are going through an appeals process with the Nevada Education Department, checking for errors and building a case for exceptions.

The official announcement of the results is scheduled for July 23.

Under federal education law, all public school students must demonstrate proficiency in reading, writing and mathematics by the 2013-14 academic year. Schools must meet benchmarks for overall performance and participation, as well as for subgroups of students, based on ethnicity, special education status, English proficiency and family income.

If the district does not meet the requirements, it will be placed on the state’s “watch list.”

A second consecutive year of low scores would mean a district is identified as in need of improvement. With each successive year on the “needs improvement” list, sanctions increase — from having to offer students transfers to more successful campuses to the replacement of key staff to a takeover by the state and finally the federal government.

Educators have long decried No Child Left Behind’s expectations as unrealistic. To be sure, it doesn’t take much for a school to fall short. Failing to have 95 percent of eligible students present for testing will do it. Low performance by just one or two students in a particular subgroup can also lead to a failing grade.

Mary Jo Parise-Malloy, co-founder of Nevadans For Quality Education, said that during the past seven years the public has grown to understand the idiosyncrasies involved in reaching adequate yearly progress.

“Some of the measurements they use are just ridiculous and I think most of us know that,” she said. “Parents have opinions on schools regardless of AYP. People look at how their individual children are doing, and make their own determinations.”

Haldeman said she realizes the district can’t have it both ways — decry the ranking system as unfair in years when it falls short, and sing its own praises when it meets the goals. That, however, doesn’t mean officials should pass up an opportunity to acknowledge hard work and achievement, either, she said.

“When anyone makes progress you want to give them credit for it,” she said. “This has become a huge morale issue for staff. Everyone works so hard, but because they don’t meet an artificial deadline, the whole school feels like they failed.

“The most difficult thing for an educator to see is a school making real progress and still having a negative label slapped on.”

The federal law is up for reauthorization and several significant changes are being considered, including giving schools more credit for progress. But the feds have told states and local districts that modifications are unlikely for at least another year and, for now, the current standards will remain.

The challenge for Nevada’s public schools will become more formidable next year, when the proficiency benchmarks are raised by between 4 and 14 percentage points at each grade level, the first increase since 2007.