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As
we first reported Friday, fewer Kodiak schools met adequate yearly progress
under the federal No Child Left Behind Act last school year. But as KMXT’s
Casey Kelly reports, that doesn’t necessarily mean students aren’t progressing
and doing better in just about every aspect of their education.
Adequate
yearly progress is the cornerstone of No Child Left Behind, and like the act
itself is a controversial way to measure educational goals and objectives.
Progress is measured through standardized tests for language arts and math, as
well as graduation and attendance rates. Every three years the number of
students expected to be proficient goes up. When that happened this year, the
Kodiak Island Borough School District went from having all of its schools
except one meet A-Y-P, to having seven schools miss their progress goals.
Superintendent Stewart McDonald says of those seven, five missed by just one
category of students.
(McDonald
1 :15s “…the artificial jump in the
target.”)
The two
schools that missed A-Y-P in more than one category were Kodiak High School and
Old Harbor School. But McDonald says in the case of Old Harbor--a small village
school with less than 40 students--some kids are counted in multiple
categories, skewing the results.
(McDonald
2 :10s “…three sometimes four times.”)
Kodiak High
School on the other hand is the largest and most diverse school in the
district, and faces its own unique challenges. The school made A-Y-P under No
Child Left Behind for the first time in the 2006-2007 school year. It missed
making it last year because of factors that hurt every Kodiak school that
missed A-Y-P. Namely, students with disabilities, low-income students, and
English as a second language students are not meeting the progress goals
outlined in N-C-L-B. McDonald says the district will continue to target those
students.
(McDonald
3 :10s “…result in that school next year.”)
He says the
district has several strategies for reaching students that aren’t meeting
progress goals, some of which can be accomplished fairly easily.
(McDonald
4 :15s “…with them about their learning.”)
Robyn
Cassidy is the outgoing president of the Kodiak High School Parents Teachers
and Students Association. Her third daughter is about to be a senior at the
school and she says she’s never been concerned about the education any of her
children have received.
(Cassidy
1 :21s “…education at Kodiak High School.”)
Cassidy
says the way adequate yearly progress is calculated will always make it
difficult for schools like Kodiak High School to meet the goals of No Child
Left Behind.
(Cassidy
2 :14s “…way it’s currently being done.”)
McDonald
says the act isn’t all bad. For one thing, at least people are actually
discussing educational goals. But that hardly makes up for some of the programs
more obvious flaws.
(McDonald
5 :10s “…that doesn’t first consider the
child.”)
No Child
Left Behind currently calls for all students, nationwide, to be 100 percent
proficient by the 2013-2014 school year. McDonald says most Kodiak schools are
on target to do that. However, Congress is in the process of reauthorizing the
act, and is expected to make changes to it.
I’m Casey
Kelly.
HOST
TAG: Stewart McDonald will present the district’s adequate yearly progress
results to the school board at a work session tonight (Monday). The meeting is
scheduled for 7 p.m. in the school district conference room, downstairs at the
borough building.
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