Schools may not get passing grade
Last month, Granite and Alpine school districts were seeking to allow 34 schools to make adequate yearly progress toward achievement goals based on new federal guidance on test-score averaging and students with disabilities. Davis School District had used those rules in at least some appeals.
State associate superintendent Judy Park has been looking into whether the same opportunity should be extended to districts that didn't know about those rules. Friday, she told the state school board nobody can grant appeals based on those two rules, citing stands taken by district superintendents.
"This is a huge change in philosophy and practice at the state office," Park said.
And not all school districts are buying into it.
"I don't care what they put on that state Web site — it can say we're all flying to the moon. The reality is, the local district decides," Davis Superintendent Bryan Bowles said Friday. "I stand by the designations of our schools as we released them. There was nothing we did that was dishonest."
Last spring, 256 Utah schools failed to make AYP, the state education office reported.
The federal department allows schools to appeal AYP designations for serious calculation errors or extreme circumstances like natural disaster that affect test taking.
This year, 61 schools made AYP on appeal — the highest number in four years, according to State Office of Education data obtained by the Deseret Morning News through a Government Records Access and Management Act request. The all-time high came in 2003, when the law was new and 81 schools appealed.
Utah has more than 900 public schools.
Reasons for appeals are not all certain.
The federal government recently started allowing schools to average scores or their participation rates over the past three years to help them make AYP. It also has said students no longer needing special education services still can have their test scores count in the students with disabilities subgroup for two years.
Those changes are not in Utah's AYP plan. But Davis School District used them in some of its 17 appeals this year, more than triple last year's count and more than any other Utah district.
Alpine and Granite districts also petitioned Park's office to use the three-year average rule, which would change designations of about 35 schools.
Recent comments
Anonymous: You've oversimplified. Don't confuse "making...
One more thing | Nov. 10, 2007 at 11:43 p.m.
I've been a teacher in Utah for over 25 years and I find your...
To Seasoned Teacher | Nov. 10, 2007 at 11:26 p.m.
To the Seasoned Teacher, thank you for a well thought out comment...
Future teacher | Nov. 10, 2007 at 9:46 p.m.
