School clears 'progress' hurdle after recount

OREM — Westmore Elementary principal Kathy Porter says her students have never been failures. After Monday's release of Utah schools' AYP data, education officials finally agree.

"I think the biggest boost is to morale," said Porter, who is in her third year at the Orem school. "Teachers have always worked hard here, and they have worked even harder lately. We all came together and worked together to help students improve learning."

Almost a year ago, Westmore was placed on a "school improvement" — or "failing schools" — list because the 493-student school didn't raise its test scores for two years in a row. Had the school failed to achieve adequate yearly progress, or AYP, in the number of students scoring as proficient on the state core curriculum tests, Westmore would have faced additional sanctions — including the appointment of a state official to monitor the school's progress, along with mandated tutoring programs.

In the end, it was a close call for Westmore.

On initial test results, the school did not make AYP because the special education subgroup failed to do so. During the 30-day review period, however, the school filed an appeal with the Alpine School District, which ultimately determined that the school satisfied the requirements.

"The data was incorrect," explained John Jesse, who serves as district research director. Jesse said that two errors appeared on the first AYP results, which skewed Westmore's special education student scores and inaccurately portrayed the school as deficient.

To correct the problem, the district meticulously combed through the special education records from 2002, state testing coordinator Louise Moulding said. The district then created a computer program identical to the state's to ensure all data were included, and that results could be verified.

That daunting task paid off. After re-entering and re-tallying the missed information, Jesse said Westmore easily made AYP.

"We wanted to know what their score really was and it was clearly a yes," he said. "This is one school where their data accurately reflects their hard work."

The single "yes" on Westmore's AYP results removed it from the school improvement list — where Porter never thought Westmore belonged, since the school's SAT scores regularly best the national median scores.

Compared against itself, however, Westmore looked to be failing because its scores were dropping and not rising, as required by federal law.