Thousands of our schoolchildren are being left behind. Only you wouldn't know it by looking at the test results that will be released next month.
Last year, all but 31 of the 214 public schools in South Hampton Roads passed federally mandated standards, making what is called "adequate yearly progress." But in every school that passed AYP, as it's often called, at least one group of scores - such as those belonging to students who are Hispanic, disabled or learning English - was disregarded.
A set of rules - some call them loopholes - enables schools to ignore test results for large groups of struggling students or to use bonus points to meet pass rates.
Cheryl Poe of Virginia Beach, an advocate for children with disabilities, called it "crazy" and "backwards" that some children aren't being counted.
"Anyone should be concerned when they're coming up with loopholes to cover up the fact that groups of children aren't performing the way they should perform. These are the kids who need it the most."
If their disabled students had been counted, about 70 percent of South Hampton Roads schools actually would have failed last year in math, reading or both.
According to the federal No Child Left Behind act, all groups must pass for a school to meet AYP. Failing schools bear the stigma for an entire year and can be forced to provide tutoring or to allow students to switch schools.
The federal law was written to hold schools accountable for the success of all of their students, including minorities and other groups. That's why they are counted separately, said Michael J. Petrilli, who helped implement No Child Left Behind as a senior official in the U.S. Department of Education.
"That doesn't necessarily mean they are writing them off," he said. "But important conversations are not happening." All students are still considered in their overall school score and division averages.
The scores of special education students on Standards of Learning tests are not counted at the majority of schools in the region and the state, according to data provided by the state Department of Education. And when they are included, Virginia gives bonus points that boost the pass rate.
A school also can pass if its scores are high enough if averaged over three years or if the school reduces its failure rate by at least 10 percent.
"A lot of these, rightfully so, are viewed by the public as ways of getting out of strict accountability rules," said Pete Goldschmidt of the National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards and Student Testing at UCLA. Virginia is far from alone. Every state uses some exceptions, he said.
Most loopholes are not limited to special education. They can apply to any measured group, specifically black, white, Hispanic, low-income and disabled students, plus those learning English. In Virginia, a group can be as large as 49 students and still be excluded.
In suburban school systems with little diversity, several such groups can fall under the 50-child threshold and therefore be excluded, said Petrilli, a vice president at the Thomas J. Fordham Institute, an education policy think tank in Washington.
"They are A-OK even if a large percentage of their students are performing abysmally," he said.
The results are best at giving parents and the public "some sense of how schools are doing, on average," Petrilli said. "There's a lot of nuance that can get missed."
Heather Malaby, director of the Tidewater District PTA, has researched the methods for reporting test results and believes too much detail can be overwhelming to parents. The state also measures schools through a separate accreditation system.
"I think it's really difficult to understand," she said of the way schools are measured. "Does a parent need to know that? I don't know. You have to be able to have a little faith that the school is doing right."
Typically, the state doesn't report how a school made its progress goal, only that it did. To get a sense of how the process works, The Virginian-Pilot analyzed passing methods in special education, considered a particularly challenging area.
At Trantwood Elementary in Virginia Beach, a school with more PTA members than students, near-perfect scores on parent satisfaction surveys and passing rates above 90 percent on math tests, special education students haven't done as well.
In 2007, 34 special education students were tested in grades three to five. About 63 percent passed in reading and about 55 percent passed in math. According to standards set by the state, they were required to pass at rates of 73 percent in reading and 71 percent in math. Trantwood, like more than half of the schools in the region, met its yearly progress goal because it tested fewer than 50 special education students, the minimum number in Virginia. Some passing schools had as few as a third of their special education students reaching proficient levels.
Trantwood Principal Patricia Slaughter said the scores might have registered lower because Trantwood rarely gives special education students alternative tests, which measure skills differently.
"Special education is a concern across the city because it's difficult," Slaughter said. "There is a reason children are in special education classes."
In Virginia, 79 percent of the public schools that made AYP in 2007 had too few special education students to matter.
States can set their minimum group sizes, and in many states, Trantwood would have had enough special education students for its scores to count. Nationally, groups of 31 regular education students and 36 special education students are the average, according to data compiled by the Council of Chief State School Officers. Maryland counts any group of five students or more.
When Virginia adopted 50 as its threshold in 2003, it was described as large enough to minimize wild swings and "small enough so that large numbers of students and even schools are not excluded from the accountability system," according to state Board of Education documents.
State spokesman Charles Pyle said the board didn't want too many high-performing schools labeled as failing.
Ironically, the 50-student limit meant that there weren't enough special education students to matter at the Virginia School for the Deaf and Blind in Staunton and the Virginia School for the Deaf, Blind, and Multi-disabled in Hampton.
Under one nationwide rule, it doesn't matter how many students actually passed AYP. "Safe harbor" considers whether a school reduced its failure rate.
Churchland Middle School in Portsmouth made "safe harbor" in reading because 48 percent of its special education students passed, up from 27 percent the year before.
They used a different rule for math, where 61 percent were proficient or better.
Virginia is one of 22 states that has federal permission to add percentage points to special education pass rates under what is called "proxy percent." The rule is a temporary fix until states come up with a separate test for some of their lower-functioning special education students.
The state will try out a new eighth-grade exam in some schools in 2009, with a wider rollout beginning as soon as 2010, said Shelley Loving-Ryder, assistant state superintendent for student assessment and school improvement.
It might be a good thing if the rules help more schools pass, said Dianne Florence of Virginia Beach, immediate past president of the Virginia PTA. "When a school doesn't make it, I hear from the parents - how upset they are. They love the school."
The bar is higher this year. For the 2008 test results to be released in August, 75 percent will need to pass in math, 77 percent in reading.
Under No Child Left Behind, states are required to reach 100 percent proficiency in 2014.
"Once you get to 100 percent, none of these will really matter much," said UCLA's Goldschmidt. For example, low math scores the past two years will mean three-year averages won't help much in 2008.
"You have to make all students proficient," he said.
Lauren Roth, (757) 222-5133, lauren.roth@pilotonline.com
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Stated Purpose of NCLB
.." That all children will have a fair, equal,and significant opportunity to receive a high-quality education and reach at a minimum, proficiency on state assessments."
The law requires that the educational sytems close achievement gaps.The law also requires schools to meet the needs of poor children, children with disabilities, child with limited English and other NEGLECTED groups of child. Why is this too much to ask for from our public education system?
Why are we not outraged that Loopholes have been developed to deprive children this basic right?
School loopholes
after looking at the scores, I have to say that Chesapeake deserves some kudos. Look at the pattern of "exceptions" with the other cities. Good job Chesapeake!
VAAP
VAAP also measure how well a teacher can do a portfolio, take a lot of time, and don't help a child become more independent
VGLA is much the same thing-- some schools and districts do a lot of these, others really follow the guidelines and don't; scores of special needs teacher leave and find new jobs of these portfolio assessments..
Many kids with disabilities need extra help, not grade level objective recited in front of them... Throw out the SOLs... are 100% of the kids going to earn PhDs, go to law school? Kid have different needs and they were being met better before SOLs and NCLB
Ignorance....
It amazes me that so many people are experts on this topic, yet most have not even read the NCLB legislation, SOL requirements and policies of the VDOE, or the Chesapeake School Board's policy on grading. Most criticism comes from those who have not spent any substantial period of time (working or volunteering for at least two years)in a Chesapeake school. The dynamics are much more complex than what meets the eye. Do some research, volunteer some time, then voice your educated opinion.
More info needed on subgroups
It would have been interesting to compare Va's subgroup size (50 to count in school's stats)with other states. I happen to know that 50 is a very large subgroup size. In fact, I think it is the largest subgroup size in the country. And I don't buy VDOE's reason for the large subgroup size -- it is simply another way to dodge accountability for sped students (and other students in subgroups)!
Does Va know better than the rest of the country? Hardly. (In Va schools are allowed to take longer than practically all other states to do initial evals for special education eligibility, thanks to a loophole in IDEA 2004; what often happens is that ALL evals for special education students now stretch to that timeline.)
Why
Why must we have these rules to not hurt people's feelings? Some kids just aren't good at school. Why can't some of them go to vocational schools? Just becasue a kid doesn't get good grades in English doesn't mean he is dumb. Maybe he needs to be a plumber, or electrician, or welder. Maybe other kids need a challenge, prep them for the military. Not everyone HAS to go on to college. There are other opportunities out there. Standarized tests end up hurting the kids that do well in school, bacause the teachers have to teach down to the kids who don't do well.
This day in age, no one is
This day in age, no one is allowed to keep score during a sporting event, no child is allowed to fail, everyone is an All-Star and no one is allowed to punish them. Mm, I see nothing wrong with that. Sounds like a great plan! Now when Johnny visits the Welfare Office, he will do so feeling great about himself.
School Admin, make sure that your teachers cannot teach and your parents are not included in anything. They can only give the students the answers to the SOL so that you will look good. Make sure every child is treated the same, no matter what common sense dictates. Be as stupid with America's future as can!!! You're getting a A+ so far.
Don't Blame the Teachers!
This comes from administration, my son who is going into second grade was referred by his teacher for a child study. I was a little upset by this since I feel that I know my son, yes he is a very strong willed and stubborn kid, but pretty intelligent when he is interested in something. I am a stay at home mom and we work with him at home alot. My husband and I decied to hear them out and attend the meetings, in which suggestions where given one how to improve his scores and a meeting would be set up for four months later to discuss his progress. We informed the principal, social worker and school pyschcologist that we did not want our son labeled or given an IEP because we felt that he could do the work so we began working with him more at home on math and handwriting (these are his low progress areas). After leaving that day I told my husband, I would be curious to know how many other kids in his school were on a IEP.
When I was stationed in
When I was stationed in Korea, I helped to teach English to elementary children at a local school. My sponsor teacher picked me up from just outside the base, took me to the school and gave me my schedule for the day. I had no lesson plans, as I wasn't trying to teach them the words. What the school really wanted was for the students to hear a native speaker of the language to help them with pronunciation. At any rate, I got to observe the students every other Saturday. Yes, they went to school on Saturday. They had 3 periods of class. During class they obeyed their teachers (of course, they are kids and kids have a tendency to be a bit rowdy), they studied their lessons and they participated in the games we played. Between classes was free time. They would run, rough house, yell, etc and the teachers would just sort of smile on. A bit odd but it worked. Now, here's what got me. At the end of every day, the stud
Let's not redefine Failure
I am not allowed to give a student a grade of Zero for failing to do an assignment. According to my school administrator, the division's policy is that no student can receive a grade lower than 50%, for any reason, including refusal to do the assignment. That means this child may pass even if she or he hasn't sufficiently learned the material for that grade, because there will be enough chances for passing grades, that the final average could be a passing mark.
Sadly, this child is not likely to pass the SOL exam, and the parents are probably going to be disappointed because "...She was doing so well in your class!" Yet, the classroom teacher is held accountable for such a poor showing on the SOL exam. That's just not right, for the student, the parents, or the teacher.
We are getting...
...exactly what we are allowing to happen...
Ready to revolt yet?
Thought not. Now get back to your commercials...
how about this?
Maybe every parent should have their child tested for special ed. It makes up for failed parenting and this way their child would have a free pass for disrupting class, not doing homework, not having to follow the rules or being held accountable and we'd have no use for "no child left behind" since every student would be measured individually and we'd have no use for group standards. We've become a society that refuses to accept responsibility and we look to place the blame for failed learning anywhere but on either the parent of the student.
I'm shocked. Shocked, I tell you.
None of this surprises me. My husband teaches middle school in Virginia Beach. His classes were full of disruptive and uncooperative students. In at least one of his classes, he had nearly as many 'inclusion' or special ed kids as he had regular kids. He had parents who made ridiculous demands for their child. He had administrators who would not enforce basic school behavior policies because they didn't want to have to deal with the parents(Example: Cell phones are NOT allowed in middle school, period, yet because parents complain so loudly if their child's phone is taken away, the rule is rarely enforced by administrators--and believe me, the kids know it).
My husband managed to get through the school year with his sanity intact, but I've never seen him so discouraged as a teacher. There's no support from administration, whether it's regarding student performance, fights in the halls
Also
This whole article was not well researched. I would have liked to have seen more factual evidence and perhaps more information about what types of students qualify for receiving special education funding. As a teacher, I know how hard it even is to have a child identified, even when you know there is something wrong with how the child learns/does not learn. So the children receiving services are usually the most dire students in need of the most remediation. When they can't recall what happened yesterday, it's next to impossible for them to recall facts such as multiplication tables, history facts, etc., so the SOLs are not fair to them.
Schools and politicians
1. We need teachers to try and get into government so they can affect policy. I guess we teachers don't want to get into the fight that it is, but still, I believe this is the answer.
2. If the public didn't react as strongly as they do when politicians use words such as "teacher accountability," and the like to bolster their constituents, then they wouldn't be as involved in education as they are. So while we can cry dirty politicians and everything, they only run on issues that will get us going, and education is one of them. Trouble is that they have no clue about teaching and kids.
So this is why,
Most of Maury High Students are labled Special Ed, Artificial Status -
Here's a true story, After five years of Maury High and only 13 earned credits a student is offered to pursue the GED during night school, but first they must sign out of Maury, so they do. They go to the GED program and before they are allowed to start the program they are administered an appitude test for reading and math. Well after 13 years in the P.S. System and five, 5 in Maury, the student has a sixth grade reading level and a 5th grade math level. They now have to bring all that up to at least a ninth grade level before taking the GED. Upon calling the school to report this discovery the parent is told that the only person who is authorized to administer an applitude test is the school psychologist!?!??!? BUT until then the student is labeled and treated as a troubled student..Oh and besides that, the schools get extra funding w
TO: got2win1
Your comments are spot-on! Thank you for stating them so eloquently.
Twisting numbers
Anyone can take numbers and manipulate them any way they want the results. You show one culture of kids had 25% failure in 3rd grad math and another group had 15%. Now parents are up in arms screaming bias instruction. Actually you had 5 students of one culture that had 1 failure and 15 of another that had 1 failure....really a 90% rate of knowledge retention, pretty good. Hate to say it but parents need to learn that failure is a good tool in life, and they, the parents, need to teach their children that academics is the tool for success and not just sports.
Loopholes???
Pleaseeee! You can't teach if you can't get the student's attention. Most classroom time in our public schools is spent trying to control with no support from home. I can remember a time when trouble at school meant double trouble at home. Not anymore. I teach adults and it is very sad to see how many college graduates can not do simple math and have no understanding of what they read. How do you think this happened?? If you are over the age of 50, you know exactly what I mean. The fail ration used to be quite small. A few were kept back to repeat, but the majority of students passed and were promoted to the next level. It would seem to me that history should teach something to those in charge of education. Many teachers think this "no child left behind" is doing more harm than good. What good does it do to turn students out into the world to try to earn a living if we have failed to educate them on how to accompl
It's Our Future People!
I went through all the comments to this article, and was not surprised that the sentiments were all over the place; Democrats blaming Republicans; Local Schools blaming the Federally Government; Parents blaming Teachers, on and on. It seems that everyone who has commented is looking blame someone else, or at least absolve themselves.
I'm in the same boat as T.Smith. After 35 years of working in private industry, I decided to go back school myself, "learn how to teach", and give something back to my community by relating real life work expereinces to high school students so they would be better prepared to succeed after they graduated from school . As a first year teacher, I taught in two different high schools; to over 250 students; 9 different subjects; ages 13 to 19; grades 9-12; pushing a cart around the hallways running from classroom to classroom; spending well over $1000 out of mine o
here we go .....
ya'll know what I'm talkin bout
standards down the tubes
We keep lowering the standards to suit each and every whining person. When I was in school you passed or failed period. I have never seen so many PARENTS blame every one else but themselves and their children for everything! These SOL's are not helpful in any way because the teachers are pressured to get the scores. Now "padding" scores?? Really? It's pretty sad how society has changed since I was growing up! I am only in my early 30's. I was expected to do my best and if I didn't there were consequences. I knew that and had enough respect for my elders and myself to listen. I am so saddened by the lack of standards we put on todays youth, they are our future and we need to fix this.
Uh...so what?
The purpose of the standards is to measure how the school is performing. It's not supposed to be a measure of how many non-English speakers and disabled students they have enrolled who are going to consistently score lower.
Federal interference
The federal government has no business regulating local schools. It is a ridiculous waste of our money.
Other things missing...
Years ago, there was no ADHD, there was the belt. Parents were home to help with homework. Discipline was in school and at home. Nowadays, there is too much political correctness. Some parents and students have figured out the system and use it to their advantage. The state, local admin and parents need to realize some students AREN'T college-bound. You can't just point the finger at the teacher. Years ago, we were told "You can still teach how you want, just cover the SOL's." We were told, "No, you won't have to teach to the test." Well here we are, about 10 years after the implementation of the SOL and we don't have a choice. The honest truth is its all about the numbers. To any of you wanting to point the finger at a teacher and say that teachers aren't qualified or not doing their job, go to any school and ask to sit in on a class. I "bet" you learn something. Teachers are just as frustrated and we let it
Why?
Why on earth is the government in charge of schooling our children?
immigration test
Ummm, PE...the naturalization test has been overhauled. The new test will be out in October. You can go to numerous websites to see both the new and the old tests.
The genie out of the bottle . . .
I might suggest that it is the Department of Education, needing to keep itself in a job. It wasn't even created till either the Carter or Reagan years (anyone remember which?) and seems to have been put on like a caboose that now wants to be the engine on the train. Cheers, MGM
(what is wrong with localized education, after all? I understand it didn't work during "separate but equal" days but our country is a different place now)
Yes!
....and the immigration test requirement need to be overhauled, too!
Student of yesterday
I agree with frankm. We did just fine with seven bells and teachers and principals who had a free hand. School back 30 - 40 years ago did most of us no favors, no standardized testing, no one size fits all state instruction, and no 4 block classes. This nation turned out the finest professionals in history in medicine, law, science, engineering or trades.
Now we see the shaded results when politicians turn education into a farce. Increasing drop-outs, teaching to tests, micro-management from beyond the community, and little real education for the next generation. Just one big farce. Its too late to put the genie back in the bottle. The only way I see this turning around is if it becomes so burdensome and difficult to fund these programs for both state and federal government that waivers for SOL and NCLB pave the way back to real local control of schools by the community. And yes I would love to see