By Louis Garcia

The higher No Child Left Behind (NCLB) targets for students in state testing are unrealistic, according to the Kodiak Island Borough School District (KIBSD).

“The picture for what all school districts in Alaska are facing from now until 2014 is the targets we have to meet are unlike anything we’ve had to meet before,” federal programs director Melissa Beyers said.

For the last 10 years students were expected to improve by a total of 13 percent in language arts and 11 percent in mathematics to meet adequate yearly progress (AYP). In the next three years from 2011 to 2014 Alaskan students will be expected to improve by 23 percent in language arts and 33.9 percent in math.

“That’s because, from what I’ve gathered from the state, is that when No Child Left Behind came into place they had to set these targets for schools to meet to make 100 percent proficiency, and they set targets that were easy to meet initially because they thought that by the time we got to this 2011 school year that NCLB would have been changed and we wouldn’t have that 100 percent target,” Beyers said.

Last year 77 percent of total students in KIBSD had to be proficient in language arts and 66 percent in math.

“We’re not doing a bad job meeting that,” Beyers said. “It’s unrealistic to expect kids and teachers to improve by 6 percent and 8 and a half percent every year for the next four years.”

AYP sanctions for schools unable to meet proficiency are huge for Title 1 schools. If Akhiok, Old Harbor and Ouzinkie schools continue to not meet proficiencies they would reach the worst level, level five, which results in replacing principals and 50 percent of the staff.

“Worst-case scenario, we’d have three schools that are level five by this 2014 deadline,” Beyers said.

If those schools make AYP next year, however, then they won’t have to worry about sanctions.

More hurdles are coming for the state and KIBSD. Strings were attached to some federal funds the state took from stimulus funds like American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and State Fiscal Stabilization Fund. The district’s Apple computers and iPads project was funded by SFSF funds.

One of those strings requires revising the Alaska State Standards. Every state has its own education standards, but a group of states created Common Core Standards, and Alaska chose not to follow those.

Now the state has to ramp up standards and make them similar to the Common Core Standards.

The problem with this revision is the changes may start being used in the 2012/2013 school year while old testing practices are used for No Child Left Behind to meet AYP.

“For two or three years we’ll be having two sets of standards, we’ll be only tested on the old ones. We need to start using the new ones all at this magic time,” Beyers said.

In another aspect of this reform, the federal government wants to tie teacher evaluation to student performance through the Highly Effective Teacher program.

“So now, if I’m a teacher in a classroom, I need to show a year to a year and a half worth of growth with these students that I have,” Beyers said.

Because of this federal requirement, the state will have to figure out a way to quantify such an improvement in performance. However, the Highly Effective Teacher standard may not be implemented, and is currently on the back burner.

The Alaska Board of Education will talk about the new Alaska State Standards on March 17.