More Kansas schools and districts failed to reach student performance goals this year, and the Emporia school district was one of them. The district has appealed the results of the standardized tests and is waiting for a decision from the Kansas Board of Education.
The Emporia scores showed that the district as a whole, which includes the test results of all students, did meet proficiency in both reading and mathematics, subgroups within the district did not meet proficiency requirements in reading.
Village Elementary did not meet goals in reading and Emporia Middle School failed to meet goals in mathematics. Overall student scores at both schools met AYP requirements, while subgroups within the schools did not.
Subgroups are identified within schools and school districts when student populations meet criteria for subgroups. Smaller districts in general have fewer subgroups than the larger districts. The subgroups involved in the Emporia district tallies are: Free- and reduced-price lunch students, students with disabilities, English language learners, African-Americans, Hispanics and whites.
State officials had expected more failures this year because of the additional number of grade levels that were tested. The performance requirements are part of the federal No Child Left Behind Law.
State-wide, 86 percent of Kansas schools met goals for math and reading this year, compared with 92 percent last year. Kansas’ average was above this year’s national average of 71 percent, said Deputy Education Commissioner Tom Foster.
The number of schools that fail to meet the Adequate Yearly Progress goals is expected to continue to rise, as the NCLB score mandates continue to rise, the Associated Press reported.
Emporia Superintendent John Heim said that the district in September appealed the test score results for a variety of reasons.
“We haven’t heard back on those yet, and we are so close that the way those appeals are resolved will either put us over or put us under the line,” Heim said.
He said, for example, that a separate test is given for special education students.
“Some students take it and some don’t -— and some of the kids were recorded as taking the wrong test,” he said. “We hope to get that cleared up. Some of the kids ... were recorded in the wrong subgroup.”
The district has between 50 and 60 appeals at the state as a result of what officials believe are errors, and Heim said Emporia is not the only district that has appealed.
“The last I heard there were about 2,700 appeals statewide,” he said.
Decisions on the appeals are expected next week.
Because the district has not achieved AYP for two consecutive years, it will write a district improvement plan to submit to the state.
“We’re working on it in our office right now and when we find out what we actually have to do, then we’ll probably expand the group to include more people,” Heim said, adding that he wants the public to become involved in the process.
After two years of failing to meet AYP, the No Child Left Behind act provides parents with the option of transferring their students from a failing school, with the school district paying for tuition costs. However, that option is not now applicable in the Emporia district.
“The middle school hasn’t made it two years in a row, but there’s no other school to transfer to, so it really doesn’t affect them,” Heim said.
The North Lyon and Southern Lyon County districts both met AYP, according to a list provided by the AP.
Council Grove Elementary School and Osage City Elementary School did not meet AYP in mathematics.
With students in more grades taking the tests, 86 percent of Kansas schools met goals for math and reading scores this year, compared with 92 percent last year. Still, Kansas bested this year’s national average of 71 percent, said Deputy Education Commissioner Tom Foster.
Money and scores
Wednesday’s results were from standardized tests taken during the 2005-06 school year, the first since schools started receiving an initial substantial infusion of state tax dollars, prompted by a lawsuit filed in 1999.
Legislators approved $290 million in new spending for the 2005-06 school year, followed by a three-year, $541 million plan effective this school year. Kansas now spends more than $3.2 billion on K-12 education. Much of the new money was directed at poor and minority students who historically receive lower scores on standardized tests.
“I think Kansas education is cheap compared to the rest of the country,” said board member Bill Wagnon, of Topeka. “(Taxpayers) are getting more bang for the buck.”
For the 2005-06 school year, 264 of the state’s 300 districts made adequate yearly progress, as did 1,219 of 1,414 schools. Thirty-six districts and 195 schools did not.
For 2004-05, before some consolidation occurred, the state had 301 districts and 1,515 schools. Of those, 281 districts and 1,394 schools made the grade, meaning 20 districts and 121 schools did not.
Progress was measured by the percentage of students proficient in math and reading exams. The reading mark was 63.4 percent for kindergarten through eighth-grade and 58 percent for high schools. The math mark was 60.1 percent for kindergarten through eighth grade and 46.8 percent for high schools.
The State Board of Education voted earlier this year to use the same target percentages used during the 2004-05 school year because more grade levels were being tested and the exams themselves had changed.
However, the performance marks jump significantly next year, building toward the national goal of 100 percent proficiency.
Under federal law, schools and districts that have high concentrations of poor students and fail to make sufficient progress face sanctions, including allowing parents to move their children to another school or reorganization.
Other districts and schools that don’t make adequate progress don’t face those sanctions, but Wagnon said the state shouldn’t ignore them and should provide all the support available to boost student achievement.
“We need to make sure they have adequate support that helps them solve their problems,” Wagnon said.
Board member Sue Gamble of Shawnee said without explicit sanctions for all districts, parents or educators may wonder why the yearly test results matter.
Mark Tallman, a lobbyist for the Kansas Association of School Boards, said schools were putting the new state dollars into programs aimed at at-risk students, those in danger of failing at least one academic subject. For a count of such students, the state takes the number of students receiving free lunches.
Tallman said the test results are being used by local school boards to set priorities and the new money from the state helps them invest in weak areas.
“Improvement is improving; it’s simply not going fast enough,” he said.
Districts that miss the mark in a given year start behind when they are held to the same performance level in the following year, Tallman said, and closing the gap takes time and money.