N.J. schools to show slight rise in failing to meet federal target

Tuesday, November 04, 2008

BY JOHN MOONEY

Star-Ledger Staff

In a year of big changes to the state's student testing, New Jersey will see a slight increase in the number of public schools failing to meet the requirements of the federal No Child Left Behind act this year, state officials said.

Sixty-six more schools will miss the law's student achievement targets for so-called "adequate yearly progress," raising the total number falling short on their 2008 tests to 646, just shy of 30 percent of all public schools tested last spring, officials said.

District-by-district results will be released in December, they said. But the overall numbers were less than some feared, given the state's sweeping changes over the last year to raise the rigor of some elementary and middle school tests.

Most notably, the Corzine administration and the state Board of Education last summer raised many of the marks needed for elementary and middle school students to be deemed proficient on the tests.

The move helped send passing rates plummeting in many urban and suburban schools, and educators worried hundreds more schools would face sanctions under the federal law, including eventual demands to restructure or even close altogether.

But the state was able to spare many of these schools -- at least for a year -- by also changing how schools themselves are graded under the law. Schools failing for six straight years are subject to sanctions such as sacking much of their staff.

New Jersey officials announced yesterday that the federal government approved steps to slow down some of the law's escalating requirements on schools that will demand 100 percent proficiency by 2014.

For instance, under previous rules, schools this year would have been required to have 82 percent of their middle school students pass the language arts portion of the tests, a big leap from the year before, with or without the changes in the testing.

But with the federal government's approval, the state lowered that mark to 73 percent to help offset the lower passing rates, and also made similar adjustments in the math and elementary school targets.

In addition, schools below those target levels were given more leeway under the law's "safe harbor" provisions if they showed sizable improvements in their students' raw scores, whether they passed or not.

State officials could not provide details of how many schools would have made "adequate yearly progress" if not for the testing changes, but they said student achievement rose statewide in most grades and should not be overshadowed.

"Given that we have raised the bar and instituted a new test ... the fact that there's only a small decrease (in passing schools) is evidence that we are getting better results from our schools and their students," said state Education Commissioner Lucille Davy.

Local school officials yesterday were only starting to digest the new scores and the changes in how to read them, but some advocates said the state's steps to ease the impact on schools appeared reasonable and would give schools some time to adjust.

"We had concerns when they changed the standards in the middle of the game that it would reflect poorly on schools," said Steve Baker, a spokesman for the New Jersey Education Association. "To the extent this allows the state to make statistically valid comparisons, we feel it's a good development.

"It is certainly better than creating a false impression that there was a major drop-off in achievement," he said.

John Mooney may be reached at jmooney@starledger.com or (973) 392-1548