Ames Schools Among 60 Percent in Iowa Not Meeting No Child Left Behind Standards

A fifth of the near 1,000 students at Ames Middle School test at 90 percent or above in Iowa assessments and at Ames High School, ACT results showed that students score twice as high in college readiness than their peers.

As far as test scores go, Ames schools land at the top of the heap in several categories, said Pam Stangeland, Ames Middle School principal.

But both the Ames Middle and Ames High schools are also among 58 percent of schools in the state that failed to meet Adequate Yearly Progress, according to Iowa State Report card results released last week.

In fact, both schools have been labeled as Schools in Need of Assistance since the fall of 2009. Ames Middle School has maintained that label since the fall of 2007.

Ames Middle and Ames High schools make the list for its subgroups. Test results are broken down into grade level subgroups such as low social economic status, race and gender. And when less than 80 percent of any one of those subgroups test proficient in math or reading, schools fail Adequate Yearly Progress.

Each year the percent of students who must test proficient increases by about 6 percent until 2014, when 100 percent of students must test as proficient in math and reading. Proficiency is defined as scoring in the 41st percentile or above on Iowa assessments.

“In essence the No Child Left Behind trajectory has been increasing by 6 percentage points for all students and what's happening is the subgroups are not making the level of growth required by that trajectory,” said Mandy Ross, associate superintendent 
for school improvement.

Sawyer and Edwards elementary schools made the watch lists this year. However the elementary schools rarely make the “Schools in Need of Assistance” list, partially because a school must have at least 40 students in a particular subgroup in a single grade level in order for those subgroup scores to be examined.

Ames Middle and Ames High schools are not Title 1 schools, so they are not subject to NCLB sanctions, such as offering students a choice of schools. But, the district also hasn't received any increased funding that failing Title 1 schools receive to help make improvements. They receive only the Schools in Need of Assistance label.

Stangeland said no one disagrees with the philosophy of the NCLB, but there are problems with how it's carried out.

The act has forced schools to examine how their subgroups are performing and led to changes in meeting the needs of those students something the district may not have done without the NCLB because overall student achievement is high, Stangeland said.

Professional development has been aligned district wide so that students are less likely to lose ground as they move from elementary to middle school and middle to high school and the district has also worked on aligning their English as a Second Language and special education programs with the general education program, Ross said.

In Ames Middle School, students in math and reading break up into small groups for specialized instruction if students need it.

Multiple subgroups failed to meet proficiency goals in reading. Last year just one Middle School subgroup - special education students - failed to meet adequate yearly progress in math. All students even the profoundly disabled must be tested and that group of small special education students is allowed to take alternative tests, but they don't score proficient, Stangeland said.

Stangeland doesn't see that as an excuse for failing adequate yearly progress in math however.

“I see room for improvement in the special education department, I definitely do,” Stangeland said.