State puts Unified on notice for missing annual goals

BY PAUL SLOTH
Journal Times

Wednesday, June 25, 2008 6:22 AM CDT

RACINE — The Racine Unified School District is one of four districts in the state that failed to make required annual progress this year under the federal No Child Left Behind law, according to the state Department of Public Instruction.

This was the first time the district, as a whole, was added to the list of districts that failed to meet adequate yearly progress for the 2007-08 school year, according to district officials. The school districts in Madison, Beloit and Milwaukee also failed to meet adequate yearly progress.

Three elementary schools also missed annual targets, which could jeopardize their federal funding if they don’t improve. Wadewitz Elementary School missed targets in both reading and math, while Goodland and Knapp missed their math targets.

In addition, four Unified schools — McKinley Middle School and Case, Horlick and Park High Schools — are among the 56 schools that the state identified as needing improvement.

The schools for two or more years failed to meet one or more criteria required for the state’s designation of adequate yearly progress. Case met its annual targets in all areas this year after not showing adequate yearly progress in 2005-06 and 2006-07.

Wadewitz, Goodland and Knapp receive federal Title I funding because they have high numbers of

low-income students.

Schools and districts that receive federal Title I funds are subject to sanctions for failing to meet adequate yearly progress for two or more consecutive years.

The DPI uses adequate yearly progress to measure school improvement under No Child Left Behind. Just like state test scores, the state’s annual announcement of districts in Unified’s situation forces officials to explain what they’re doing to help schools as the federal government continues to apply more pressure to states to improve the academic achievement of all students, especially low-income and minority students.

“We don’t panic. I think the fact that the bar got raised and that there are specific issues in every building, for me, it’s not a surprise,” said Marguerite Vanden Wyngaard, Unified’s chief academic officer.

The federal government this year increased the percentage of students required to be proficient or advanced in reading and math — 74 percent in reading; 58 percent in math.

The aim of No Child Left Behind,

education officials claim, is to have

100 percent of the nation’s public school students proficient in reading and math by the year 2014. Under the law, each state sets its own standards.

Elizabeth Burmaster, the state’s superintendent of public instruction, said she is working with politicians at the state and national level to make changes “to the federal education law ... to ensure that accountability requirements contained in No Child Left Behind truly help states close the achievement gap and improve education for all students.”

Sanctions for schools missing annual targets may include school improvement plans — already a requirement for all Unified schools according to its Quality Management System — corrective action and restructuring.

No Unified school is included in this sanctioned group, nor is the district as a whole.

The DPI earlier this month sent state school districts preliminary results for the 2007-08 school year, which are based on four areas: participation in the Wisconsin Knowledge and Concepts Exam; attendance for elementary and middle schools; graduation rates for high schools; and reading and math proficiency at all levels tested.

The district gets a chance to see the data before the public does and Unified officials have already started to address the issues, Vanden Wyngaard said.

“There are strategies that we’re already working on,” Vanden Wyngaard said. “All this does is light a different fire of urgency to ensure that the programs for school improvement are in place.”

Improvement needed

Two of the district’s three comprehensive high schools and one middle school continue to struggle.

Horlick and Park high schools and McKinley Middle School all missed state standards in one or more areas and remain on the state’s list of schools that need improvement.

Last year the state identified McKinley, Horlick, Park and Case as needing improvement because they missed adequate yearly progress in 2005-06 and 2006-07.

In 2007-08, McKinley missed adequate yearly progress in math. Horlick missed in math but met adequate yearly progress in reading and graduation rate and Park missed in reading, math and test participation, but met adequate yearly progress in graduation rate.

Jerstad-Agerholm Middle School missed adequate yearly progress in math, and Mitchell Middle School missed adequate yearly progress in reading. Gilmore Middle School missed its annual targets in 2006-07 but met them this year.

Area superintendents will work with school leaders to address issues at each school, Vanden Wyngaard said.

“You have to personalize the intervention to targeted areas where there appears to be a deficiency. I would anticipate the district will be off that list as of next year,” Vanden Wyngaard said.

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