Edge for small schools?

A glance at Utah schools' No Child Left Behind reports make it look as if youngsters behind bars are leaders in academic achievement.

All eight of Ogden's Youth in Custody and other programs for youths in crisis made "adequate yearly progress" on test scores and other hurdles erected by the federal government.

Testing bosses say it's a fluke that comes with No Child Left Behind and the state's efforts to fairly apply the law in geographically diverse Utah.

But what's happening appears to be this: Rules intended to ensure achievement in small schools accurately represents the whole seem to be putting small schools at an advantage in making adequate yearly progress, or AYP, under the federal law.

"I think there are some rural schools doing really well," said Dixie Allen, a State Board of Education member representing rural eastern Utah from Daggett to San Juan school districts. "I don't think (the issue) suggests they're not doing their job. I just think they have an easier path. It's just an unlevel playing field. It's like comparing apples to oranges."

Fourteen of Utah's 40 school districts, plus its charter schools, had 100 percent of schools making adequate yearly progress. All but one — Tooele — were in small, rural school districts: Daggett, Garfield, Juab, Kane, Millard, Morgan, Tintic, South Sanpete, Sevier, Rich, Piute and Wayne.

By contrast, Jordan, the state's largest school district with 74,000 students, had just under half its schools making AYP.

There are some anomalies, however.

In the 13,000-student Cache School District, 43 percent of schools failed to make AYP. The 1,450-student Grand School District, nestled in Utah's rural red rock country, posted a 50-50 pass-fail rate. And Salt Lake County's Granite School District, the state's second largest with more than 69,000 students, showed two-thirds of schools made AYP.

Still, there's a sizeable enough pattern that some school officials are questioning whether AYP does what it's supposed to: identify schools that truly need to improve.

"These results are a better indicator of size than of quality. The bigger schools are not passing, even though our specialty schools are," Provo Superintendent Randy Merrill said. "A single report of information is not a good way to judge a total school, especially when the way the information is compiled is questionable."

Adequate yearly progress comes under the No Child Left Behind Act, signed into law by President Bush in early 2002. The act aims to have all children, regardless of ethnicity, income, disability or English language skill level, score as proficient on state tests — in Utah, the core curriculum test, or CRT — by 2014.