Whitefish schools get progress reports

SHANNON VELEZ

Whitefish Pilot

Whitefish Schools administrators and educators are breathing a sigh of relief after officially clearing last year's Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) hurdle mandated by the No Child Left Behind Act.

Whitefish came up short in 2003, falling below proficient levels in special education K-8 math. If a school does not make AYP two years in a row the district must provide tutoring for the students, or parents are given the option to transfer their child to another school within the district; a catch-22 situation that sucks funding away from a school struggling to make AYP because funding depends primarily on enrollment numbers.

A school that continuously fails to make AYP could potentially be reformed by the state according to NCLB.

Joe Lamson, Communications Director for the Montana Office of Public Instruction says that we are 'quite a ways away from something like that happening' citing Article 10 sec. 8 of the Montana State Constitution, which forbids such a takeover.

Overall, Whitefish district scores have been high, though some of the scores from AYP have highlighted areas that educators will need to address in the coming years. These areas include, math for fourth grade special education students and tenth grade Title 1 reading and math classes.

These particular subgroups automatically made AYP, regardless of their scores, because they were comprised of 40 or less students. This is due to a concern over confidentiality. When a subgroup has 40 students or less, scores are withheld ensuring that no child can be singled out.

If these scores had been factored in, curriculum director Bobbie Barrett said that they would not have made the grade.

"We are so very fortunate to be able to isolate the areas we can work on and that we don't have the big issues that larger districts have to deal with," Barrett said, explaining that a school with larger enrollment numbers, and similar scores in these particular areas would not make AYP.

"NCLB is very powerful federal legislation and the intent behind it is good," Barrett conceded.

"But some pieces make it very difficult to achieve AYP."

Currently NCLB calls for 100 percent of students to be proficient in math and reading and for each school to have a 100 percent graduation rate by the year 2014, no exceptions.

"This raises some questions," said Lamson. "Not all kids are going to graduate, for whatever reasons, and special education is another concern. Is it possible for all kids with disabilities to make AYP?"

Barrett says that they have been blown away by the absurdity of it all.

"Every child is different. Every child has different talents and different challenges," Barrett said. "It's a matter of federal legislators painting a broad brush perspective of all schools. It doesn't fit."

This year Whitefish schools must demonstrate a 2-3 percent improvement rate and in 2006 the state will raise the bar once again, setting cut scores even higher.

Lamson said that with the NCLB act up for reauthorization in a couple of years "all we can hope for is more flexibility put into it before 2014."