After more than a year of debate, the bar has finally been set for Missouri school districts striving to meet demanding new standardized test requirements under the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

During a seminar Tuesday in Cape Girardeau, around 60 public school administrators from throughout Southeast Missouri received the latest information handed down from the federal government regarding the NCLB Act, a reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965.

"We've been making this up as we go along because things are constantly changing with No Child Left Behind," said Mike Alexander, director of federal instructional improvement with the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

Adequate Yearly Progress

Since the implementation of NCLB in January 2002, Missouri education officials have wrestled with defining Adequate Yearly Progress -- the amount of annual improvement all schools must achieve on the Missouri Assessment Program tests.

NCLB requires schools to have 100 percent of students, regardless of learning disabilities or household incomes, scoring at the proficient or higher level on state tests by 2014. The specifics of how schools must go about achieving that goal were left up to state education departments.

Alexander said under the Missouri's current AYP plan, DESE used 2002 MAP scores to determine the baseline from which school districts must improve in the communication arts and math tests over the next 12 years.

Using a formula designated by the U.S. Department of Education, DESE officials determined that the baseline will be 18.4 percent of students scoring at proficient or above in communication arts, and 8.3 percent of students scoring at proficient or above in math.

Meeting AYP

For the next two years, districts must gain one percentage point over the baseline percent in those two subject areas to meet AYP.

On the 2003 MAP tests, which will be administered in April, 19.4 percent of students must score at the proficient or advanced levels in communication arts and 9.3 percent of students must score at those same levels in math.

In 2005, schools must jump to 40.3 percent of students scoring at proficient or above in order to make AYP.

"During those first two years, we want to give schools a chance to adjust, especially those that are starting below the baseline," said Dee Beck, federal programs coordinator with DESE. "But we're counting on districts to move faster than that to meet the third-year intermediate goal of 40.3 percent in 2005."

Many schools are already scoring above the baseline percentages and therefore do not have to make AYP, as long as by 2005 they are at or above the 40.3 percent intermediate goal.

"Something that I think may be difficult will be that continual raising of the bar for our students," said David Gross, principal at North Elementary in Fruitland. "It's going to be a true challenge for any school district."

If a school does not make AYP in either math or communication arts two years in a row, the school will be targeted for improvement and must devise a state-approved plan for improving instruction. At that point, parents will have the option of transferring their student from the failing school to another school within the district that has met AYP.

Once listed as in need of improvement, schools must meet AYP two years in a row before they return to normal status.

Not only must individual schools meet these requirements, subgroups within those schools, such as minorities and students with learning disabilities, must also meet the requirements.

"Breaking it down by the disaggregates will help us know where we need more help," said Rhonda Dunham, principal at Franklin Elementary in Cape Girardeau. "This is holding us accountable for what we should have been doing for the past 100 years."

Under Missouri's current state testing program, only students in third, fourth, seventh and eighth grades take the math and communication arts tests. By 2006, the state must include fifth- and sixth-graders in the testing as well.

"Up to this point, this legislation hasn't been very specific or clear," said Gross."There have been some negative comments and some positive comments, but bottom line, I think if you work hard in the classroom, most of this will take care of itself."

According to Beck, the state should receive final federal approval of the AYP plan by the end of March.

"It's a worthy goal. Who wouldn't want all students to be proficient?" said Beck. "But we know it's statistically impossible to get 100 percent of our students to proficient or above by 2014. It's going to be difficult for some schools to make even the first-year goal."

cclark@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 128