Trying to leave no child behind

At Ogden's Central Middle School, making "adequate yearly process" has required the utmost effort of the inner-city school's staff and students. The school district, local school board, teachers union and state office of education backed the effort to improve academic achievement and other benchmarks required under the Bush administration's No Child Left Behind education initiative. It has required visiting children at home, asking parents to sign compacts with the school to help children do well in class and regular meetings to identify students who aren't showing up at school.

These efforts sound like the recipe for success in any school. But the challenges are much steeper at Central Middle School where the vast majority of students are low-income, whose parents may work two or three jobs, and where some students are homeless. Under those conditions, Central Middle School achieving AYP is a success story to be celebrated. Another year of similar progress and the school will be off the federal government's "school improvement" list.

This success story — and others like it — should be lifted up and acknowledged. There is some evidence that public schools nationwide have responded favorably to the pressure exerted by the federal education initiative, NCLB. It's noteworthy but certainly not the only measure of the success of a public school.

Overall, 84 percent of Utah's schools this year made adequate yearly progress or AYP, compared to 72 percent last year. There is some debate whether the numbers reflect improved academic achievement, a softening of standards, or whether some schools have simply figured out how to play the AYP all-or-nothing game. All three factors may be at play.

This year's AYP pointed to some success, but other results are cause for concern. Last year, six Utah Title I schools were in the "school improvement" category. Now there are 16. Title I schools that stay on the list two consecutive years face sanctions from the federal government.

Two of last year's six schools in school improvement — Parkview Elementary in Salt Lake and East Carbon High School — improved two consecutive years and are now off the list. Congratulations are in order for both.

The NCLB initiative — although somewhat refined — is not the best measure of school achievement or outcomes. But it is a form of accountability that helps ensure that the nation's public schools give students their best effort. In the case of Title I schools that don't make the grade, school districts must provide students the opportunity to seek a more suitable education elsewhere.

President Bush's re-election means the nation hasn't seen the end of NCLB, which means ongoing pressure for schools to meet federal standards, which is, arguably, a good thing.