As More Schools Miss Standard, Official Says Feds Have Gone Too Far

By Isolde Raftery, The Columbian, Vancouver, Wash.

Aug. 24–Terry Bergeson’s blood is coming to a boil.

The state schools chief had always been the one saying that students need to be tested and the schools held accountable. But now, she says the federal government has gone too far.

“If they don’t change this legislation, we have a train wreck for public education,” Bergeson said. “There are a million requirements. It’s unfair, it’s unethical, it’s ridiculous.”

Bergeson was referring to No Child Left Behind, the 2002 federal education law intended to pull up low income and minority students. On Friday, the state schools office released which schools don’t meet the standard, and the list has added dozens more schools since last year.

In Clark County, schools needing improvement are:

Battle Ground Public Schools: Battle Ground High School

Evergreen Public Schools: Cascade Middle School, Heritage High School, Mountain View High School, Evergreen High School

Vancouver: Gaiser Middle School, Hudson’s Bay High School, Discovery Middle School, Lewis and Clark High School, Fort Vancouver High School, Jason Lee Middle School, McLoughlin Middle School.

Washougal: Excelsior High School

Only schools receiving Title I federal dollars are on the list; they are the poorest schools in the state. Schools that do not receive Title I money but don’t make the grade are not listed.

Schools that don’t meet standard for two years must send a letter home to parents, saying their child can switch schools.

“It isn’t fair,” Bergeson said. “The poor schools have to send this letter home. The rich schools don’t, because they don’t receive Title I money.”

But, Bergeson continued, the schools with higher income students are going to be surprised to see themselves on the state’s Web site, which lists every school that doesn’t make the grade.

That’s because next year, making the grade will be even tougher. For starters, schools will have to attain a higher bar. The percentage of students who must pass the Washington Assessment of Student Learning, or WASL, rises every two years, and next year is an increase year. No Child Left Behind demands that all schools reach perfection by 2014.

Increased pressure

Part of Bergeson’s frustration stems from the fact that the U.S. Department of Education is making it harder for schools to make the grade.

“The Feds are getting tougher, not more enlightened,” Bergeson said. “I’m in arguments with them every other day.”

Department of Education spokesman Eric Earling said that the White House and members of Congress are looking to make No Child Left Behind more flexible.

“With any big federal law, you find out what areas work and what areas could improve,” Earling said. “We’ve been building on the success that’s been had thus far.”

Earling said that the Department of Education is looking into assessing a district by its progress, not its raw scores.

But increased flexibility is still in the future.

Special education students can no longer take a WASL exam that’s at their grade level. So now, a 7th grade special education student who reads at the third grade level must take the 7th grade exam.

And recent immigrants must take the WASL after one year of being in the country, even though research shows that it takes three years for a student to become fluent enough in English to pass the exam.

To boot, all elementary students count now — it used to be that just 4th, 7th and 10th grade students counted — which means that more schools will likely fail. That’s because the government doesn’t count small classes or small categories of students. (For example, the category for 4th grade low income students in reading may have been too small to count at a certain school. But now, with all elementary low income students being counted, the school could fail in that category.)

Schools that don’t meet the standard for the first year don’t meet any consequences. If they don’t meet the standard for a second year, they are considered in “step 1″ of needing improvement.

There are five steps; the fifth step requires a “plan for alternative governance.” In Clark County, four schools are in step 4 — Evergreen High School, Fort Vancouver High School, Jason Lee Middle School and McLoughlin Middle School.

Proposed sanctions

As it stands, not making the grade is a slap on the wrist, a severe blow to school morale. But the Department of Education is pushing to cut money from schools that don’t meet standard.

The Department demands that school districts set aside 20 percent of Title I dollars to bus students who choose to leave their “failing” school. Currently, schools that don’t use all the money — and in Washington, none do — use the money for other purposes.

But the Department wants to make it so that those school districts would return unused money to the federal government. This applies only to the poorest schools, which receive Title I money.

Bergeson had hoped that No Child Left Behind might be modified over the summer. But nothing happened. Now Bergeson and Gov. Chris Gregoire are pushing for action this fall, before presidential politics pick up.

“Even three or four years ago, I kept hoping that thing would improve, to no avail,” Bergeson said. “They’re not listening. … They’re not in the world I live in. Each year, I get a little more fed up.”

Isolde Raftery writes about education. She can be reached at 360-759-8047 or isolde.raftery@columbian.com.

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Copyright (c) 2007, The Columbian, Vancouver, Wash.

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