Education Law

Good schools falter under AYP effect

This New York Times article illustrates how solidly performing schools are beginning to miss NCLB?s proficiency targets and add to the list of perceived failing schools identified by the law. Robert Linn, a professor at the University of Colorado and testing expert, described the AYP effect: ?If, no matter how hard teachers work, the school is labeled as failure, that?s just demoralizing.?

The Times story looks at the number of schools that didn?t make AYP in California last year and cited Prairie Elementary, a school that has moved every student subgroup forward academically since the law?s passage in 2002, as missing the targets for the first time. Part of the reasons why almost half of California?s schools failed to meet AYP last year was because of the much higher proficiency targets their students had to meet under NCLB. The proficiency targets for every student subgroup rose by 11 percentage points, an increase that Linn said was ?unrealistically rapid? since sustaining a 3 to 4 percentage point increase every year for even a great school is difficult to do.

BoardBuzz cited a study last week that found nearly all elementary schools in California would miss AYP by 2014. The AYP effect is sprouting across the country; students in almost half of the states must meet significantly higher proficiency targets this year for their schools to make AYP. One of the most extreme examples is South Carolina, which was known for its rigorous assessments; its students must meet targets that were 20 percentage points higher than last year. As a result, the state saw 82 percent of its elementary and middle schools fail AYP. In a statement released on AYP, state superintendent Jim Rex said, ?Unless NCLB?s rating system is revised to incorporate a more commonsense approach, the danger is that this law will lose all credibility with the public?

Full post as published by BoardBuzz: NSBA's Daily Weblog on October 14, 2008 (boomark / email).