Wednesday, Jul. 28, 2010

Fewer schools meet federal standards

Fewer schools in Wake and Johnston counties met federal No Child Left Behind standards this past school year, but students made strides in test scores.

Of Garner's eight elementary schools, five made adequate yearly progress. East Garner Middle and North Garner Middle failed to meet the standard, although both schools met the progress benchmark last year. Neither Garner High nor Southeast Raleigh High met the target.

Western Johnston County schools fared well. All 15 of the elementary and middle schools in western Johnston made the grade. But Clayton High and West Johnston High fell short.

In Wake County, the state's largest school system, 61 out of 159 schools, or 38 percent, made adequate yearly progress, according to a preliminary report released last week by the N.C. Department of Instruction. That's down from 63 percent last year.

In Johnston County, 24 out of 40 regular schools, or 60 percent, met the federal standards, down sharply from 85 percent last year.

Under the No Child Left Behind Act, schools are broken into subgroups of students, based on ethnicity, income, English proficiency and other factors. If one subgroup does not meet testing standards, the whole school fails.

Despite a poorer showing by federal standards, more students this year passed year-end tests mandated by the state. But the passing rate in the high schools can't be compared directly with the prior year. For the first time this year, North Carolina counted successful retests in high school in the passing rate. Last year, when elementary and middle schools first included retests in their passing rate, the passing rate soared.

This past school year, 76.5 percent of elementary and middle school students in Wake passed state end-of-grade reading tests. That compares to 74.7 percent in 2008-09.

In Johnston, 78.2 percent of elementary and middle school students passed the reading exam, compared with 75.1 percent the prior year.

In math, 85.5 percent of elementary and middle school students in Wake passed the end-of-grade exam this year, compared to 84.5 percent the prior year.

In Johnston, 88.9 percent passed the math exam, up slightly from 88 percent the year before.

Preliminary results from this past year showed that 84.9 percent of Wake students passed end-of-course exams, typically given in high school. Without the retests, 80.6 percent passed. That compares to 80.1 percent last year.

As for end-of-course tests in Johnston, 84.3 percent of students passed when retests were considered. Without retests, 76.3 percent passed. In the 2008-09 school year, 74.3 percent passed end-of-course tests.

Staff Writers T. Keung Hui and Ray Martin contributed to this report.