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Wednesday, Aug. 06, 2008

Fayette schools improving on federal test scores, high schools lag

Fayette County's five high schools and most of those in surrounding counties failed to meet federal No Child Left Behind goals, according to data released Tuesday.

Fayette County's Bryan Station High became the only school in the district to fail six years in a row, but students won't get the option of transferring to a better-performing school because no other high school in the county passed.

Overall, Fayette's public schools made progress, with nearly three-fourths meeting goals, up from more than two-thirds last year. Notably, Winburn Middle School reached NCLB goals for the first time ever this year.

“Our people are working extremely hard and at the same time, we're getting district-wide overall progress, but it just has to be faster,” said Fayette Superintendent Stu Silberman.

In the surrounding counties and Franklin County, more than 60 percent of all schools met NCLB targets, a decline from nearly 80 percent last year.

Meeting NCLB goals got harder this year as targets for the percentage of proficient math and reading increased significantly, said Lisa Gross, spokeswoman for the Kentucky Department of Education.

Officials advised parents that a school's overall NCLB rating isn't always a great measure of school performance. Instead, the program is designed to measure whether schools are closing performance gaps with certain groups of children, such as minorities and students with special needs.

“My recommendation to parents is always, ‘Is your own child doing well in school? Are you happy with the kind of learning that your child is getting at your school?'” Gross said.

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. CATS scores will be released in September.

Schools that receive federal money for low-income students — known as Title 1 schools — must meet certain scores under NCLB or risk sanctions that include offering students the option of transferring to better-performing schools.

Schools that continually fail are assigned a tier status, which ranges from 1-5, with 5 being the worst. Schools must develop a new curriculum, provide training for teachers or use state education resources if they continually fail.

Bryan Station High has failed to meet targets for six straight years, making it Lexington's only Tier 5 school. This year, only 26.13 percent of all students scored high enough in math, well below the goal of 39.82 percent. Meanwhile, 50.12 percent of all students scored well in reading, above the goal of 39.45 percent.

Bryan Station also failed to meet goals in several other subgroup areas and the school's graduation rate dropped. Bryan Station High is the district's only Title 1 high school.

Silberman said the district is working with Kentucky Department of Education officials to bring experts into the school that can help improve student achievement.

Bryan Station High officials must revise their school improvement plan, offer additional tutoring, take corrective action and implement a restructuring plan.

Although Bryan Station High students can't transfer this year, they can get extra tutoring if needed.

While Bryan Station is the only Title 1 high school in Fayette County, none of the district's high schools met math goals in the black student subgroup.

This year, of the 85 schools in Bourbon, Clark, Franklin, Jessamine, Madison, Scott and Woodford counties, 33 did not meet targets, up from 17 that failed last year. Only four high schools in these counties — Model Laboratory High, Berea Community High, Paris High and Frankfort High-Middle schools — met NCLB goals.

Gross said the NCLB results emphasize a problem plaguing all high schools.

“When students get to be (high school) age, they realize that these tests don't have any bearing on their school life,” she said. “And it goes back to the same problems that all high schools in the country have: Achievement is low.”

Madison had the most schools — 15 of 19 — that met NCLB goals. But the district also had Madison Middle, which failed to meet the federal mandate for the sixth straight year, similar to Bryan Station High.

Madison Middle will continue a partnership with Eastern Kentucky University to have AmeriCorps students come into the middle school to provide extra tutoring, said Erin Stewart, spokeswoman for Madison County schools.

“Our focus really is to make sure that each child in this district achieves to his or her highest potential,” Stewart said.

Winburn Middle School is Fayette's biggest success story. That school, which has a large special-needs population, reached NCLB goals for the first time ever this year.

Winburn met NCLB requirements by making double-digit gains in several categories. Although Winburn didn't reach target goals, the school made such dramatic improvement that it got a passing grade under NCLB with a special classification known as the safe harbor provision.

Overall, Winburn had 54.43 percent of students reaching proficient and distinguished in math and 62.34 percent of students scoring proficient and distinguished in reading.

Winburn offered extra tutoring and assistance every Tuesday and Thursday for students and offered 90 minutes both of language arts and math instruction every day, Principal Tina Stevenson said.

Winburn teachers, administrators and staff celebrated their win Monday with a barbecue lunch, ginger ale in champagne glasses, music and streamers.

While watching a Power Point presentation that listed the names of all students that scored high, hollers and cheers turned to tears as more and more students' names were read. Stevenson stopped dancing long enough to remove her glasses and wipe her eyes with a tissue.

“We had days we cried and we had days we prayed together, but we are a family and we support each other,” she said. “We held everybody's feet to the fire .... We realize we have a way to go, but we're doing all right.”

Although Winburn met NCLB targets this year, Fayette school officials will continue to offer support to Winburn, which must also meet goals next year before sanctions are lifted. Winburn must still offer students the options of transferring.

Other Title 1 schools that did not meet NCLB goals were Cardinal Valley Elementary, which failed for the second year in a row; and Crawford, Leestown and Tates Creek middle schools, which have all missed targets for four consecutive years.

Those schools must offer transfers, as well Russell Cave Elementary, which met goals but must meet targets for two consecutive years.