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When Marion County Superintendent Roger Marcum went to China two summers ago, he met a community with an unwavering, disciplined focus on education — a stark difference from Kentucky and the rest of the United States, he said.
”Once our kids get to be middle school and high school age, there is a lack of motivation to do as well as they can,“ Marcum said. ”We have no trouble motivating kids to do alright on a Friday night at a football field, they'll give an above and beyond effort.“
Marcum said that's a major reason why Kentucky high and middle school students struggle to meet No Child Left Behind mandates. According to NCLB data released Tuesday, 90 percent of Kentucky elementary schools met targets this year, while 45 percent of middle and only 36 percent of high schools met those goals.
NCLB is a federal program that measures achievement in public schools based on state tests in reading and math. The mandate calls for getting 100 percent of students proficient in those subjects by 2014.
In Kentucky, the results come from annual tests taken under CATS, or the Commonwealth Accountability Testing System. Schools must make sure all subgroup populations — white, African-American, low-income and special-education students — meet goals.
But NCLB is a flawed way to measure schools, some state education experts say. The all or nothing approach — if a school misses just one target they fail — is unfair.
Also, larger schools with more diverse student bodies have a harder time meeting goals, they say.
Many smaller schools, such as most elementary schools, may not have enough students in a subgroup to be held accountable under NCLB, making it easier to meet goals.
”High schools have more categories, and the more categories you have, the less likely you are to make these pass/fail grades,“ said Bob Sexton, executive director of the Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence. ”The important point I want to make is that's not a Kentucky picture; it's a national picture.“
In Fayette County, for instance, only one of 33 elementary schools failed to meet NCLB math and reading targets.
But only a third of middle schools met goals and none of the district's five high schools met targets.
Two of the middle schools that met targets — Winburn and Bryan Station Traditional Magnet middle schools — did so through a safe harbor provision that passed both schools for making dramatic improvements without meeting goals.
Fayette Superintendent Stu Silberman acknowledged that the district must find a way to help middle and high school students excel, especially those who have special needs or speak English as a second language.
”But I think it's very important for the public to know ... if you look at all the kids in the district, we made positive movement in every single subgroup except for one,“ he said.
Asian students dropped slightly in reading, although they already perform at a high level.
Silberman had a meeting with principals Wednesday and urged them to share teaching methods that worked for their subgroup populations.
For example, Lansdowne and Dixie elementary schools, which made significant achievement gains with its black student populations, could pass tips to middle and high schools that are struggling in the same area.
”Wherever it's working is where our folks are going to go to get good ideas from,“ Silberman said.
State education experts say drastic steps must be taken to address the problems plaguing Kentucky high and middle schools.
”We've got to implement changes and it may require legislative action to initiate those,“ said Joe Brothers, chairman of the Kentucky Board of Education. ”These schools, if we don't intervene now in a dramatic sort of way, then it's not going to happen for them.“
Brothers said a significant ”culture change“ — new school principals and administrators — needs to occur in many schools that are continually struggling.
Marcum believes the solution is more simplistic.
”Some folks will look at curriculum and instructional practice, but the first thing you have to begin to do is ... build a culture of high expectations,“ he said. ”That gives the kind of motivation that exists with students in other cultures.“
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