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By Kevin Buey A study by the Washington, D.C.-based Thomas B. Fordham Institute supports beliefs of many New Mexico school superintendents, Deming Superintendent Harvielee Moore said. The study finds a school's location has much to do with whether its students make adequate yearly progress under No Child Left Behind. AYP is "as much a product of inconsistent and arcane rules set by state education officials as of actual pupil achievement," the study reports. The Fordham Institute and the Kingsbury Center at the Northwest Evaluation Association analyzed schools in each state. It used 36 New Mexico schools, then "moving" them among 28 states, and projected which would make AYP under NCLB rules in each state. Of 18 New Mexico elementary schools, 17 would make AYP in Wisconsin, 15 in Arizona but only one in Massachusetts or Nevada. Some states would label most "needing improvement" under NCLB, while other states would give passing marks. The study results did not identify which schools were used. The Thomas B. Fordham Institute is described on its Web site www.edexcellence.net as a non-profit think tank dedicated to advancing educational excellence. "No Child Left Behind's image suggests that schools across America are being judged in a consistent, fair and transparent way", said Fordham President Chester E. Finn Jr., "but that turns out to be an illusion." Only one Deming school, the now-closed Smith Elementary School, made AYP in last year's state report card. Smith's continuing students are at Ruben S. Torres Elementary School, which opened this school year. Chaparral Elementary School, an AYP school a year earlier, missed in 2008 by 0.4 percent of a point in one sub-group's reading score. "They made AYP in 36 categories," District Superintendent Harvilee Moore said last August, noting falling short in one sub-group derailed a school. There are 37 sub-groups in the NCLB, passed in 2002. "Quite interesting," Moore said of Fordham study. "What it confirmed for me is what we have been talking about each state's test is different, and they have different degrees of difficulty." Moore said Willard Daggett, a nationally known leader in education reform, said at last summer's Coalition of School Administrators and the Public Education Department, that New Mexico's test is among the nation's sixth most-difficult. "Then along comes this study," Moore said. Also notable, Moore said, is the study finds one student's results might be counted five times, if he fit in five sub-groups, while another's might be counted only twice or three times. The 37 sub-groups for scores in reading and math include results of all students as a group, then in respective ethnic groups, by performance of students learning English as a second language, performance of those with disabilities and even of students qualifying for free lunch. The Fordham study also found middle schools far less likely to clear the AYP bar, that few of the 18 examined would make AYP in most of the states examined. "This study proves that the current AYP system under No Child Left Behind isn't truly working," said the study's lead author John Cronin, of the Kingsbury Center, a national non-profit education organization. New Mexico teachers have faced a dilemma teach to the test or to ready students for the next level. If it were a fair rating system, Moore said, New Mexico would be in the middle of the 28 states. "It shows we are making gains," she said. Finn and Petrilli said the solution is not to scrap NCLB or federalize tests and standards. Instead, the Obama administration and Congress should create incentives for states to voluntarily agree to rigorous, comprehensive common standards and tests. States would then decide what to do with schools not meeting common expectations. |
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