Utah schools warned on test-score reports

The U.S. Department of Education has a message for a handful of Utah school leaders: Knock it off.

School districts can't average test scores used for No Child Left Behind, a method that let at least 32 schools pass federal requirements this year.

Patrick Rooney, policy adviser in the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, and his staff said as much to state associate superintendent Judy Park in a conference call late last month.

"The thrust of the conversation is, the department would likely approve the use of averaging ... if (Utah) chose to add it to the workbook, but (Utah) was not allowed to do anything not currently in the workbook," which is the set of rules Utah chose to meet the federal law, Chad Colby, spokesman for the U.S. Department of Education, told the Deseret Morning News. Workbooks can be updated every year.

Davis School District, for one, is going back over the schools it let pass on appeal and will not use three-year averaging, Superintendent Bryan Bowles said.

But the State Office of Education apparently has no plans to make sure every school district does the same, despite the federal call. Park refused to answer a Deseret Morning News question on what the state would do about school districts known to have used the method. Rather, she cited another piece of the law that puts school district bosses in the driver's seat.

"The piece that is so important, that we feel so very strongly about, is the decision is made at the local level," Park said. "The local (superintendents) ... are the ones that have the right (under the law) to determine the appeal."

It's unknown whether Park's stand could jeopardize the more than $100 million Utah gets under No Child Left Behind, much of it in Title I money that helps educate disadvantaged children.

But McKell Withers, superintendent of Salt Lake City School District, where half the schools receive Title I money, worries.

"If (the state) clearly chooses to not act in a consistent manner with our own (No Child Left Behind) plan, then potentially resources are put at risk, and that shouldn't happen," Withers said. "The students are counting on us to use those resources to serve them."

No Child Left Behind requires all students, regardless of race, income, disability or English language acquisition, to read and do math well by 2014. School districts have to annually report each school's progress toward that goal. Schools where one group of kids misses the mark basically are identified as not making adequate yearly progress (AYP).

These AYP reports are a big deal. The law sanctions Title I schools that repeatedly fail to make AYP. West Junior High School in Fort Duchesne is being shut down as a result — a first in Utah.