Students left to wonder about test results

April 19, 2005

JOEL DAVIDSON/Frontiersman reporter

MAT-SU - Now that the No Child Left Behind testing marathon is over, a long and somewhat excruciating waiting period ensues as Mat-Su Borough Schools wait to find out how they did. Schools won't know until August whether they passed the federally mandated tests, and with 31 different ways to fail, a little anxiety is understandable.

This year marks the third year of NCLB, which assesses students' reading, writing and math skills to determine if individual schools are making Adequate Yearly Progress according to state and federal standards. Each year, schools must perform slightly better than the year before as they supposedly march toward educational excellence, where no child is left behind.

President George W. Bush signed NCLB into law three years ago as part of an effort to revamp public schools and raise the quality of education. Despite growing criticism of the law and the lack of promised funding for its implementation, if schools don't meet the federal standards, they face increasingly stiff penalties.

Last year, 18 Mat-Su schools did not make AYP. For 12 schools it was the second year in a row and the district was forced to offer students from those schools the option of transferring to schools that did pass AYP. Fortunately for the district, few students chose to attend alternate schools last year, which saved the district hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Each year schools fail AYP, however, the penalties mount. Next year, some schools might have to offer individual tutoring and educational services to select students, an expensive prospect that takes money away from other programs.

For the last two years, the district received initial AYP test results in late June, early July. This year, however, with brand-new tests administered to grades 3-9, the district will have to wait nearly a month longer.

"These are new tests," said Connie Lutz, the district's executive director of curriculum and assessment. "Cut scores need to be set in June, then the state school board approves the cut scores and then we get our results back."

Next year, Lutz said test results should come back as early as May, but that won't help school officials this fall as they scramble to get roughly 15,000 students started off to a smooth school year.

Last summer, the district received an initial report in July that no Mat-Su school had made AYP. Lutz said she knew that wasn't possible and ended up clarifying the problem after a two-week period of sending data back and forth with the testing company.

"We are not going to have that window," said Kim Floyd, information specialist for the school district. "It will definitely put us in a time crunch."

Depending on how many schools fail to meet AYP, the district might have to alter and add bus routes to accommodate students whose parents choose to have their kids attend a school that did meet AYP. The district has to notify each parent as to whether their child's school made AYP. In past years, the district has given parents a two-week notice before school starts.

"We thought we were in a time crunch last year in terms of notifying parents about school choice," Floyd said. "Our window of opportunity is narrowing."

As for the High School Graduation Qualifying Exam, which determines whether high school seniors can graduate with a diploma, Lutz said those results should be back much faster.

"Those results are coming to us electronically, at the end of April," she said.

Contact Joel Davidson at 352-2266, or joel.davidson@ frontiersman.com.