Ed board won't accept test averages

The feds said it first, and Thursday, the State Board of Education unanimously echoed: School districts cannot average current test scores to let schools pass No Child Left Behind.

The board's vote brings to a close months of controversy. It also opens the door to possible changes for next fall: The board will petition the U.S. Department of Education to allow the practice for the 2008 No Child Left Behind reports.

"(Right now) as a state board, we're saying ... you can appeal for (two) reasons, and I don't think it hurts to put in a parentheses, non-uniform averaging is not part of that," said board member Teresa Theurer, who moved the action. "I as a state board member just want to feel really confident that everyone is being held accountable in the same way with the same rules."

The action echoes what the U.S. Department of Education, following inquiries from the Deseret Morning News, told state leaders in late December — and what the Utah State Office of Education did not appear willing to enforce as of last week.

The decision is expected to affect 25 schools in Granite School District.

"If the State Board of Education is saying this is inappropriate and if the feds are saying this is inappropriate, we're not going to use (averaging)," Granite Superintendent Stephen Ronnenkamp said.

"The only reason we have used it is because we had an absolute nod ... from the state office, up to the state superintendent," he said. "At no time ever did we want to do anything, nor was it our intent to do anything, that wasn't absolutely above-board and appropriate."

Another seven schools in Davis District met the federal standard because of test-score averaging, but that district last week indicated it would revisit those appeals and not use averaging after all.

No Child Left Behind requires all students, regardless of race, income, disability or language proficiency, to read and do math well by 2014.

School districts have to report schools' progress toward that goal. Schools where one group of kids misses the mark are identified as not making adequate yearly progress (AYP). Low-income or Title I schools that repeatedly fail to make AYP face sanctions.

The state last fall reported 256 Utah schools failed to make AYP.

But the tally since changed.

Davis and Granite districts averaged test scores over three years to allow 32 schools to make AYP on appeal.

But averaging is not in Utah's AYP workbook, which is the state-set blueprint for meeting the federal law. Therefore, not every district knew about it or chose to use it.