The Newport-Mesa Unified School District enjoyed a partial triumph
this week, with nearly all of its schools meeting state standards
even as many of them lagged behind federal requirements.
Newport-Mesa set a district record by having 31 of its 32 schools
show improvement on their Academic Performance Index (API) scores.
The district, however, was downgraded on the federal Adequate Yearly
Progress report, issued Wednesday along with the state scores, for
failing to meet established standards.
As a result, Newport-Mesa was one of many California districts
showing a disparity between the state and nationwide ranking systems.
The state results judge schools by their growth in test scores from
the year before; the yearly progress report, issued by the federal
government, holds all schools to the same performance standard
regardless of growth.
"Even though some of our schools did well on their API, they
haven't been able to scramble up the ladder to that high target,"
said Peggy Anatol, Newport-Mesa's director of assessment.
In the 2001 No Child Left Behind Act, President Bush set a goal of
having all students become proficient in English and mathematics by
2014. This year, the federal Department of Education raised the
standards, requiring each school district to have 23% of students
proficient in English and 23.7% proficient in math. The targets last
year were 12% and 12.8%, respectively.
As a result, more than one-third of Newport-Mesa's schools were
identified as failing to make adequate yearly progress in 2004-05,
even as all but Rea Elementary saw their scores on the state results
rise.
In some cases, those rises in state scores were significant.
Killybrooke Elementary posted a 54-point gain in its state scores
from 2003-04, the highest of any elementary school in the district.
Pomona Elementary and Ensign Intermediate School also saw 50-point
increases, while Adams, College Park, Davis, Whittier and Wilson
Elementary and TeWinkle Middle School lifted their scores as well.
All of these schools, however, failed to make adequate yearly
progress, because even their improved scores were not up to federal
standards.
Under No Child Left Behind, Title I schools -- economically
disadvantaged schools receiving federal funds -- must make adequate
yearly progress or enter the "program improvement" system, in which
schools set aside funds for staff development and allow students to
transfer out. Of the Newport-Mesa schools that failed to make
