State sees progress on federal accountability measure

U.S. Deputy Secretary of Education visits Indiana, discusses plans to improve No Child Left Behind Act by offering states more flexibility

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Media Contacts:
Jason Bearce, 317.232.6618, jbearce@doe.in.gov
Lynelle A. Miller, 317.232.6614, lamiller@doe.in.gov

For a school to make AYP, all student demographic groups – including race/ethnicity, economic background, limited English proficiency and special education – must pass state tests or show significant improvement toward passing. If any one area does not improve, the school is labeled as failing to meet AYP. Of the schools that did not meet AYP this year, 37 percent missed in only one category and 70 percent missed in three or fewer categories. Special education remains the most commonly missed target among schools that fell short of making AYP in a single area.

Federal program to offer flexibility in accountability

U.S. Deputy Secretary of Education Ray Simon’s visit to Indiana is part of an ongoing effort to hear from states and local communities about possible changes for strengthening the current NCLB Act. One such move is a new federal pilot program, the Differentiated Accountability Program, designed to help states distinguish between under-performing schools in need of major interventions and those that are closer to meeting the goals of NCLB. Reed said Indiana fully intends to apply to be one of the initial states in the pilot program.

“No Child Left Behind changed our national conversation on education forever,” Deputy Secretary Simon said. “Instead of questioning whether or not all students can learn, thanks to No Child Left Behind, we’re finally beginning to make sure that every child is learning. We see that right here in Indiana where educators and administrators deserve a lot of credit for developing a strong, transparent reporting system, and for being among the first to develop an online system to track school performance. Now it’s time to build on this momentum by addressing the challenges the law has helped to uncover. The Differentiated

Accountability Program pilot will help states assist those schools where the need is the greatest. Our goal is to work with the states to help raise achievement, and this new pilot, we feel, does just that.”

To provide additional flexibility in reaching NCLB’s goal of every student reading and doing math at or above grade level by 2014, the Differentiated Accountability Program would allow states to vary the intensity and type of interventions to match the academic reasons that lead to a school’s identification. The program would assist those states by targeting resources and interventions to those schools most in need of intensive interventions and significant reform. Visit the U.S. Department of Education Web site to learn more at www.ed.gov/nclb/accountability/differentiated/factsheet.html.

Consequences for not making AYP (Title I schools)

NCLB only includes consequences for public schools that participate in the federal Title I program and do not make AYP. Under the Title I program, school districts with large populations of students from low-income families receive additional federal funding to help educate these at-risk students.

Of the state’s 790 Title I-funded schools assessed, 59 percent met AYP this year. Title I schools that do not make AYP for two consecutive years in the same subject area enter “improvement status.” Improvement status consists of a series of interventions that progress according to the number of successive years the school does not make AYP. A school must make AYP for two consecutive years to be removed from improvement status.

Of the 229 Title I schools in improvement this year, the majority (67 percent) were concentrated in the first two levels of improvement. A total of 27 Title I schools made AYP for the second consecutive year and came out of improvement this year, compared to just seven last year. Fifty-one other Title I schools that were in improvement last year made AYP this year and must make it again next year to be removed from improvement status.

Local efforts resulting in AYP success

Indiana school corporations are taking innovative approaches at the building- and classroom-level to improve student achievement, including providing more targeted professional development, employing data-driven instructional practices, increasing instructional minutes and planning strategically across the district. MSD Warren Township, an urban district in the Indianapolis area, has seen success from implementing some of these strategies.

“We are excited to announce that all elementary schools, as well as the district, made adequate yearly progress under No Child Left Behind,” said Peggy Hinckley, superintendent. “In Warren, we use an eight step instructional process that has been designed to meet the unique educational demands of the students we serve.”

Reed and Simon visited Warren Township schools Tuesday to talk with educators and to see the results of their efforts. Their trip included a stop at Liberty Park Elementary School, one of eight Indiana public schools nominated for the federal Blue Ribbon Schools Award this year. Liberty qualified for the award as a Title I school with at least 40 percent disadvantaged students that dramatically improved student achievement.

For more AYP information, including corporation and school results, visit www.doe.in.gov/ayp.