Nearly all of Helena’s schools that did not meet adequate yearly progress, or AYP, standards set by the federal No Child Left Behind Act failed because of lower marks by economically challenged students.

But while that subgroup missed the mark, it doesn’t mean Helena students aren’t improving. They are, just by smaller percentages than the required AYP increase demanded.

The federal No Child Left Behind Act requires that all schools have 100 percent of their students proficient in reading and math by 2014. The bar progressively ratchets up, so that — in theory — all students are proficient in the time the federal government expects. In hope of attaining this goal, the Criterion Referenced Test is given to all third through eighth grade Montana students, as well as 10th-graders, each spring.

This year, the required level of proficiency to achieve AYP increased from 74 to 83 percent in reading and 51 to 68 percent in math.

Those are monumental jumps, school officials say.

For example, overall reading scores went up by 2 percent to 93 percent proficiency at Smith School. But because not all subgroups within the student body achieved the required proficiency, Smith is one of seven Helena elementary schools that failed to make AYP.

“I think that’s incredible,” Smith Principal Pam Wright said of her students’ improved reading scores.

But it’s not good enough, according to AYP.

Part of the challenge is how the scores are tabulated.

Montana requires school districts and schools to break out test results for certain students into subgroups. The most common subgroups are students with disabilities, those with economic disadvantages, those with limited English proficiency and American Indian students. Schools or districts must have 30 or more students enrolled in a subgroup for those scores to be reported.

Officials are careful not to put blame on those subgroups for failing to make AYP. Instead, they look for ways to address the problem.

Jefferson School is the only Helena-area school that achieved AYP based on test scores. Jefferson doesn’t have any subgroups included in the calculation because there are not 30 in any one group.

Warren, Hawthorne and Kessler elementary schools achieved AYP through provisions in the federal law that qualify schools through an exception based on technical calculations, Superintendent Bruce Messinger said.

The remaining Helena schools — Central, Broadwater, Jim Darcy, Rossiter, Four Georgians, Helena Middle School, C.R. Anderson and Helena and Capital high schools — did not make AYP.

At Broadwater, one reason for the failure is that its economically disadvantaged students scored 57 percent proficiency in math, while the target was 68 percent.

Jim Darcy’s subgroup of economically challenged scored 64 percent in math, and that subgroup at Smith scored 60 percent.

The same subgroup of students at Rossiter scored 52 percent proficiency in math and missed the mark in reading by 1 percent.

At Four Georgians, 55 percent of the economically disadvantaged subgroup was proficient in math.

Helena Middle School scored 46 percent in math and 74 percent in reading.

Fifty-six percent at C.R. Anderson scored proficient in math while only 46 percent at Helena High School and 45 percent at Capital High School did.

Bryant’s economically disadvantaged students scored 79 percent proficiency in reading (the target was 83 percent) and 54 percent in math.

“My biggest concern is everybody is treated the same way,” Bryant Elementary Principal Russ Van Hook said. “It’s a blanket test for everyone and research shows that families living in poverty have to deal with other issues that may affect test scores.”

Subtleties of the issue

Mobility is a hurdle nearly impossible to overcome at Bryant, where 72 percent of the student population qualifies for free or reduced lunch.

“We are getting kids that haven’t been here since the first grade, so we haven’t been in the early education piece,” Van Hook said.

Individual education plans are designed for students who have learning disabilities. The IEP spectrum ranges from students who may simply need some extra help in a subject to those who are nonverbal. It equates to about 20 percent of the student population at Bryant.

“That’s why we have IEPs to meet everyone’s needs and the test doesn’t address that,” Van Hook said.

Under NCLB, if a school receiving federal Title I dollars — intended to help schools improve the achievement of disadvantaged students — fails to meet AYP for five years it is identified for restructuring, which means the Office of Public Instruction can take over and potentially yank federal special-education and Title I dollars.

State Superintendent Linda McCulloch said outright that’s not an approach she’s willing to take.

“There’s no way I’d ever take way money that’s helping our students,” she said.

McCulloch also said the Montana Constitution protects its schools from the federal government taking over.

According to the constitution, “... supervision and control of schools in each school district shall be vested in the board of trustees to be elected as provided by law.” It’s that law protecting local control that prohibits the state from mandating curriculum, although it requires districts to meet state standards, McCulloch said.

“The federal government doesn’t always understand,” she said. “It would be like taking red meat off the menus here. It’s not going to happen.”

Improvement strategies

The second year a school is identified as “needs improvement,” it will work with a team of professionals to develop goals and revisions to help remedy the low scores.

Each school implements and develops some strategies unique to their buildings, while other remedies are district-wide.

One is a literacy intervention movement and includes a diagnostic test given to first- and second-graders covering many reading components. When students score below the benchmark, the district provides interventions —reading coaches, for example — to improve those scores.

Helena High and Helena Middle School, both Title I schools, are in their second year of NCLB identification as “needs improvement.”

To address the issue, a team comprised mainly of active and retired teachers will strategize after an in-depth school visit and make a set of recommendations to later be incorporated into the school-improvement plan.

Messinger described it as a formative support process that will likely happen sometime this first semester.

Schools that don’t receive Title I funding and don’t meet AYP fall under different guidelines for intervention, as is the case with Capital High School. This is the first year Capital failed to meet AYP.

“Math was our problem area,” Principal Randy Carlson said. “We have gone through a process of changing pre-algebra and Math I to better fit where the students are when they come in.”

Capital also added technical math this year, which provided more hands-on mathematical applications.

The goal of changes is to increase the percentage of students who reach proficiency, but few realistically hope for 100 percent.

“I’ve met no one in America that believes that is possible,” Messinger said.

He said the district is conscious about not taking things away, like music or physical education, to “teach to the test.”

He said at a district level, administrators help teachers give the test by providing students with the best conditions to be successful, such as scheduling the test in morning hours and not during the afternoon, when minds become tired.

Messinger said the goal is to reach a point where the test is not completely foreign, but at the same time does not ask teachers to spend weeks specifically coaching students.

Not the only ones

Helena isn’t alone in failing to meet AYP. The sixth AYP report recently released by the Office of Public Instruction said 231 of Montana’s 824 schools currently are identified as missing AYP.

Overall, Montana fares well compared to other states, with 72 percent of public schools making AYP. In neighboring North Dakota, 61 percent of its schools make the grade, while Idaho has 55 percent, Hawaii has 40 percent and Georgia and California each are only at 32 percent, McCulloch said.

“This was projected to happen,” she said of AYP failures.

One reason the school community puts little stock into AYP is that it speaks little to the “whole child,” a national movement looking at the child as a whole and not solely test results.

The general public hasn’t fully bought into the AYP concept, either. The annual Phi Delta Kappa-Gallup annual poll on the public’s attitudes toward public schools found that Americans are equally divided over whether our nation should have one set of national education standards or standards established by each state.

However, over the past few years the American public has lost faith in standardized tests. Fewer than 2 out of 10 polled believe NCLB should continue without significant change.

Messinger is open about his disagreement with AYP. He said it is one aspect of NCLB that should be totally eliminated when the law is up to be reauthorized by Congress next year.

As the threat of not making AYP looms over so many Helena schools, administrators remain hopeful about the education they are providing to students.

While it’s not great legislation, C.R. Anderson Principal Bruce Campbell said, NCLB has forced educators to focus on improving reading and math, which by itself is a good thing.

Reporter Alana Listoe: 447-4081 or alana.listoe@helenair.com