Roseville District 623, Like Many, Falls Short of NCLB Goals

Roseville District 623, like many other urban and suburban districts, did not make Adequate Yearly Progress under the federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB).

Six of its nine District 623 schools – including Roseville Area High School and Roseville Middle School -- also failed to make AYP, according to data released today by the Minnesota Department of Education.

But a District 623 official said the results mask the true quality of their schools and highlights the complexity and punitive nature of No Child Left Behind.

The scores reflect the complexity and often punitive aspects of No Child Left Behind, District 623 Assistant Superintendent Joe Wemette said

Three schools receiving Title I funds —Central Park, Edgerton and Little Canada – face consequences for failing to meet AYP. (Though Little Canada made AYP this year, it remains on a list of schools facing consequences because it failed to make AYP last year.)

Little Canada Elementary is in the first stage of a five-step corrective process for Title I  schools failing to meet AYP, and must offer school choice to parents.  That means parents must be notified that their children can be transferred to another school.

Edgerton is in the second phase, and must offer school choice and supplemental services such as tutors to parents at district expense. Central Park, in its fourth year of failing to meet AYP, moves to the “corrective action” phase, the third of a five-stage set of consequences.  It must offer school choice and tutors.  And it must develop a corrective action plan, the first phase of a process that, at its most severe stage, could lead to the total restructure of a school.

Brimhall Elementary, also a Title I school, did not make AYP, but faces no consequences because this is the first year it failed. Schools that are not Title I schools do not face consequences for failing to make AYP. Roseville Area Middle School, for example, did not make AYP for a fourth consecutive year, but faces no consequences because it is not a Title I school.

But district officials see a silver lining in the data. Three schools – Falcon Heights, Little Canada and Parkview – achieved AYP, an accomplishment that has become increasingly difficult as the 2014 deadline approaches for all students to be 100 percent proficient in reading and math.

Other Roseville-area schools did well in some areas, but did not make AYP.  Brimhall, for example, met 100 percent of its math goals. Edgerton, Emmet D. Williams and Roseville Area High School met 100 percent of their goals in reading.

The scores reflect the complexity and often punitive aspects of No Child Left Behind, District 623 Assistant Superintendent Joe Wemette said. Each year, the bar is raised for schools seeking proficiency under NCLB, which mandates that all students be proficient by 2014. 

“You measure where you are now; say 80 percent of your students are proficient," Wemette said. "Then you consider how many years it is until 2014 – three years. One hundred percent of your students must be proficient by 2014.  If 80 percent are proficient in 2011, we need to go for 87 percent in 2012, and 94 percent in 2013.”

Compounding that, all students and all subgroups of students must meet rigorous performance goals. If one subgroup fails to meet a goal, the school fails to meet AYP.

For example, Roseville Area High School met 78 percent of its math goals and 100 percent of its reading goals, but failed to make AYP because goals were not met for black students and for students with free and reduced lunch.

Last week, Minnesota’s education officials expressed optimism that the state is close to meeting the Obama administration’s new criteria for a reprieve from the mandates of the No Child Left Behind Law.

But the reprieve will not come in time to exempt schools from NCLB penalties this year, said Wemette.

“It’s frustrating,” he said. “Yes, we have some challenges meeting the needs of a diverse, mobile student population. But we have many, many high performing students.”