More Utah schools meeting federal law

Utah schools are improving, No Child Left Behind reports released Monday show.

Or are they?

Schools are learning how to play the game. Some of the rules were loosened. And the test "cut scores" changed. (A cut score is the minimum score a student must achieve to pass the test.)

Some say those factors made a big difference. But others say the reports show schools are working harder than ever to prevent students from falling through the cracks.

"Schools are really improving," said Charles Hausman, Salt Lake District assistant superintendent who has been critical of No Child Left Behind. "I still have concerns about the legislation. With that in mind, I have seen NCLB exert what I call a healthy pressure. Schools have responded favorably, and that is reflected in the data."

The federal NCLB law requires all students, regardless of income, race or disability, to be able to read and do math well by 2014. It requires districts to issue annual adequate yearly progress, or AYP, reports on movement toward that goal.

Utah districts released AYP reports Monday; the State Office of Education follows suit today on its Web site, www.usoe.org. More information on AYP reports, including a statewide list of which schools made the grade, is also available here.

Utah's AYP lens captures schools' core curriculum test scores, or CRTs.

Some say its focus is unforgiving.

AYP reports are all or nothing. Schools must either have good language arts and math test scores, plus an average 95 percent of each student group taking the test, or they fail to make AYP.

That approach represents both carrot and stick for schools to reach students who historically have fallen behind: the poor, the disabled, immigrants and ethnic minorities.

But the stick strikes low-income schools harder than others. Those receiving Title I dollars face federal sanctions — from inviting parents to transfer students to higher-performing schools to having the state take over — if they don't make AYP two years in a row. Failing to make AYP two years in a row tags a school as being in "school improvement."

Last year, six Utah Title I schools were in "school improvement." Now there are 16, the State Office of Education reported.