10/15/2008

Associated Press

A quarter of South Carolina's high schools and none of the state's 85 districts met all of their federal education goals this year, according to data released Wednesday by the state Education Department.

It is the third year in a row that no district met every goal.

Just 50 of the state's 200 high schools made "adequate yearly progress" under federal No Child Left Behind standards. That's down from 60 high schools last year. The increase means more schools must offer free tutoring and transfers to students.

Overall, the state met 27 of 37 goals. That's one fewer goal than was met last year.

The No Child Left Behind law requires schools to meet annual goals on progress toward the law's ultimate aim — that every student in America, regardless of race, poverty, or disability, master grade-level standards by 2014. When schools do not make "adequate yearly progress," the law assigns them a label and requires them to take corrective steps.

To meet testing goals on the state's High School Assessment Program, half of the students in each group had to score "proficient" or "advanced" in math, and 52 percent had to do so in English.

State officials didn't immediately have an answer for why fewer high schools met this year's goals, which were unchanged from last year. Plus, the statewide graduation rate improved to 73.3 percent from 71.2 percent.

The answer could lie in the results of this year's exit exams, which the Education Department has not yet released, agency spokesman Jim Foster said Wednesday.

Though goals focus on students' test scores, they also include graduation rates in high schools and attendance in the earlier grades. South Carolina schools generally must meet 17 or 21 targets, depending on students' disabilities and racial diversity.

State Superintendent Jim Rex said No Child Left Behind needs to be changed from an all-or-nothing rating system to one that rewards improvement.

"NCLB's goals are noble and appropriate and there's no doubt that our schools need to improve at faster rates," he said. "But unless this rating system is revised to incorporate a more commonsense approach, the law will lose all credibility with the public."

The federal law allowed each state to decide what kids should learn in each grade and set the bar for mastery on state tests. Various reports have ranked South Carolina's standards, which were created under a 1998 state law, among the nation's highest.

The state agency said calculation errors delayed the release of high school results.

Data released earlier this month showed just 18 percent of elementary and middle schools met all of their goals. While the percentage of students meeting or exceeding expectations on the state's Palmetto Achievement Challenge Tests increased across every grade and subject compared to 2007, the federal goals for South Carolina also jumped this year for the primary grades.

Nearly 60 percent of third- through eighth-graders had to score "proficient" or "advanced" in math and reading, up from about 40 percent for the past three years.

The benchmarks for high schools make a similar jump next year, when nearly 70 students must master the material.

After two years in a row of not meeting goals, schools at all grade levels must allow students to transfer to a higher-performing school elsewhere in the district — 267 schools must do so this year, up from 211 last year.

Because they missed goals for three years in a row, 198 schools must offer to pay for students' tutoring, up from 151 last year.

Of the 103,053 students eligible to transfer last year, just 2 percent — or 2,047 students — changed schools. About 14 percent of the 64,219 students eligible for free tutoring last year took advantage of the offer, according to the Education Department.

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On the Net:

http://ed.sc.gov/topics/assessment/scores/ayp/2008

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