One-quarter of local schools fail to meet federal standards

With tougher goals in place, one-fourth of the schools in South Hampton Roads failed to meet federal standards this year. That’s up 71 percent from last year.

Only Portsmouth showed an overall improvement. In Suffolk, failure rates tripled. In Chesapeake, they doubled. Norfolk’s failure rate increased by 80 percent, Virginia Beach’s by 50 percent .

The Virginia Department of Education released preliminary results for the state Wednesday. Twenty-six percent of 1,837 schools in the state did not meet newly toughened standards.

This year, at least 77 percent of students had to pass reading and 75 percent had to pass math tests for their school to be considered making adequate yearly progress, or “AYP,” under the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

Pass rates will continue to toughen by 4 percentage points a year until 2014, when 100 percent of the students are required to pass.

To make AYP, schools must demonstrate that all students, including those in various racial, ability and income groups, are reaching required pass rates.

Schools that accept Title I federal funding can be forced to offer tutoring and school choice and could even face restructuring after repeated failures. Schools that don’t take that funding aren’t sanctioned, but their school divisions are expected to step in and make changes.

Billy K. Cannaday Jr., Virginia’s superintendent of public instruction, said keeping up with ever-increasing standards is a challenge.

“You can definitely see that over the last four years there has been not only a ratcheting up of the expectations but higher standards to meet to demonstrate that we are making progress,” he said.

In South Hampton Roads, 53 of 216 public schools failed the AYP grade this year. Last year, 31 schools fell short.

In Suffolk, most of the schools failed this year. The number of schools missing benchmarks tripled to 12 . Only eight of the city’s public schools passed.

“I’m disappointed to see that some schools that had made it previously did not make it this go-round,” said Deran Whitney, the school division’s deputy superintendent for curriculum and instruction .

Suffolk’s three high schools all struggled with math, while the middle schools mostly had problems with English. The elementary schools had trouble in both subjects.

Students with disabilities scored below required pass rates at five Suffolk schools. Low-income students missed the mark at eight schools.

Elephant’s Fork Elementary must continue to allow parents to transfer their children to other elementary schools. The school met benchmarks last year but not this year. It needs to pass two consecutive years before it can do away with transfers, Whitney said. The school must also offer after-school tutoring or extra help.

“I think it’s important to recognize that if a school doesn’t meet AYP, it’s not a failing school,” Whitney said. “It’s a matter of continuous improvement.”

In Norfolk, the number failing to meet all national benchmarks almost doubled from 10 to 18 of the city’s 49 public schools.

Many schools posted pass rates of 70 percent or more, missing the goals by slim margins, said Melinda Boone, the Norfolk division’s chief academic officer. Camp Allen Elementary was less than 1 percentage point shy of meeting the benchmark for black students in English, she said.

“We are concerned we had more schools to not make AYP,” but several showed significant improvement over the past two years, Boone said.

Still, eight Norfolk elementary schools faltered, compared with one last year. Eight of the city’s nine middle schools continued to struggle, as well, with some having troubles in math and others in English. Lafayette-

Winona Middle has not met the national benchmarks for six years.

Boone said the school division will continue to focus on increasing academic rigor in math, while evaluating data to determine how to improve English scores.

“We’ve got to fight for it every year, and we’re going to fight,” said Vincent Rhodes, a spokesman for the Norfolk division. “We think our teachers and kids are going to do it.”

In Portsmouth this year, more schools made adequate yearly progress. Last year, six of the division’s 20 schools did not make it, while this year, five missed targets. Three of those that fell short this year had been successful last year.

Portsmouth schools Assistant Superintendent Patricia Fisher gave partial credit to regular

divisionwide school improvement meetings.

Last year, Portsmouth’s Churchland Academy Elementary missed the benchmark for special education students in English. It made it this year, but Churchland Academy students must be offered school choice for at least one more year.

Brighton Elementary, which has failed to make AYP for the second consecutive year, must also allow children to transfer.

In Chesapeake, six of 45 schools – three high schools and three middle schools – failed to make AYP. That’s double the number that missed the mark last year.

At the high school level, Deep Creek, Grassfield and Indian River struggled with pass rates in English for students with disabilities, an area in which Deep Creek also failed to make the mark last year.

At the middle school level, Crestwood, Hugo A. Owens and Indian River had math scores that were too low, particularly among black students and students from low-income families.

Two schools that missed AYP last year – Jolliff Middle and Oscar Smith High – cleared the benchmarks this year.

In Virginia Beach, six middle schools and six elementary schools of the 82 tested missed the mark, up from a total of eight last year. Each of the middle schools had problems in math, and at 10 of the schools, black students scored below the required pass rates.

“Title I or not, school staff and principals are crushed when this happens. They want to make AYP,” said Jared Cotton, assistant superintendent for assessment for Beach schools.

Pilot writers Hattie Brown Garrow, Alicia P.Q. Wittmeyer, Amy Jeter and Cheryl Ross contributed to this report.

Lauren Roth, (757) 222-5133,lauren.roth@pilotonline.com