3 city schools, 6 in county, falling behind

Nine Charlottesville and Albemarle County schools fell below 2008 federal education progress benchmarks established by the 2001 No Child Left Behind Act.

The information was released Wednesday as part of the Virginia School Report Card completed by the state Department of Education. Of Charlottesville’s nine city schools, three did not meet 2008 requirements for the education reform law’s “Adequate Yearly Progress” standard — Burnley-Moran Elementary, Walker Upper Elementary and Buford Middle. Six of Albemarle County’s 25 public schools failed to meet the same requirement — Jack Jouett, Burley, Henley and Walton middle schools, and Greer and Agnor-Hurt elementary schools.

All of a locality’s public schools must meet 29 benchmarks to make Adequate Yearly Progress. Schools that fail to meet the benchmarks repeatedly could be forced to allow students the option to transfer elsewhere in the division.

The Department of Education’s figures show that statewide, 1,355 of 1,837 schools met all the adequate yearly progress goals in 2007-08. No Child Left Behind requires that 77 percent of students pass the reading test for a school to be considered proficient for the 2007-08 school year, up from 73 percent the previous year. In math, it was 75 percent, up from 71 percent.

By 2014, the act requires that all students be proficient in reading and math.

State figures show promise. Overall, 84 percent of students passed state math exams, up from 80 percent the previous year. In reading, 87 percent passed, up from 85 percent the previous year.

This year Charlottesville’s pass rates were about 81 percent for reading and 78 percent in math. However, the city schools’ figures represent a step backward: Last year, seven schools made Adequate Yearly Progress, including the three that slipped in this year’s assessments. However, Charlottesville High School and Clark Elementary achieved the standards after failing to do so in 2007.

Gertrude Ivory, associate superintendent for curriculum and instruction for Charlottesville schools, said the division will continue to increase its efforts to improve students’ education.

The test scores, she said, could reflect any number of things — the pacing of the curriculum, methods used by the teacher, or a student could just be having an off day.

The Charlottesville school system plans to appeal decisions on two of the three schools, Burnley-Moran and Buford, because of extenuating circumstances and the number of students considered. The results of the appeals will be available within 15 days, according to officials.

Burnley-Moran is one of five schools in the city with a school-wide Title I program, which means it receives federal funds to help children in high-poverty areas who are behind academically or at risk of falling behind. Title I funding is based on the number of low-income children in a school, generally those eligible for free lunch or reduced-fee lunch programs.

Statewide, there are 710 Title I schools, 94 of which are eligible for increased government sanctions for failing to meet the benchmarks. None of the Title I Charlottesville schools will be subject to the sanctions.

Only three city schools have made Adequate Yearly Progress consistently for the past three years — Greenbrier Elementary, Jackson-Via Elementary and Venable Elementary. Of 25 public schools in Albemarle, 16 have made Adequate Yearly Progress for the past three years.

The only benchmark that the county school division as a whole did not meet this year is a graduation rate requirement for economically disadvantaged students. The state figures show that the county school division is less than 1 percent shy of meeting that threshold, but county school officials say their records show a slightly higher graduation rate.

The school division is appealing the state department’s decision.

Luvelle Brown, Albemarle’s executive director of school and division improvement, said he’s confident that the Department of Education will ultimately conclude that the school division made Adequate Yearly Progress.

Though there are still improvements that need to be made, Brown said, the 2007-08 report shows the Albemarle school division and some of its schools had some of its greatest improvements in performance scores. The county school division ranks in Virginia’s 90th percentile in student performance in reading, writing, science and history, according to officials.

In Albemarle, Greer Elementary, a Title I school, failed to make Adequate Yearly Progress for a third consecutive year and will be required to offer federally funded tutoring to low-income and low-achievement students. Albemarle County has eight Title I schools.

This is also the third consecutive year that Burley has failed to meet reform benchmarks — this time because of the student attendance rate, which was 93.32 percent, just shy of the state’s requirement of 94 percent.

In the previous school year, Burley students failed to meet academic testing benchmarks. However, in 2007-08, passing rates for student testing were 79 percent in English and 84 percent in math. In 2006-07, only 64 percent and 68 percent of students passed English and math, respectively.

The school system plans to appeal the finding that Burley didn’t meet the attendance threshold, according to Bruce Benson, the division’s assistant superintendent of student learning.

In 2006-07, the Albemarle school division failed to make Adequate Yearly Progress because black and economically disadvantaged students didn’t meet performance standards in math.

As a division, English scores in Albemarle for black and economically disadvantaged students each improved by 5 percentage points in kindergarten through 12th grade, according to county schools spokeswoman Maury Brown.

School officials say math scores improved because of a greater emphasis on the subject for the 2007-08 school year.

Math specialists helped teachers focus on improving students’ problem-solving skills, and teachers collaborated through professional learning communities.