The Arizona Department of Education has released a report that says 112 of the 226 schools in the state that receive Title I federal aid had test scores that showed their students achieved satisfactory academic progress, but 110 did not. Results from four schools are pending.

“This is the first real test of the federal No Child Left Behind education law as it affects Arizona school children,” said State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne.

“The schools that made progress should be proud, and I’m committed to using the department as a service provider to help those schools that didn’t,” he added.

Under No Child Left Behind, Title I funds go to aid schools that serve a large percentage of lower income students. Schools receiving the funds must achieve Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP).

A school that does not achieve AYP is placed on a “Needs Improvement” status, and parents of students in that school can send their children to another school in the same district with transportation costs paid by the district.

If schools do not show improvement in subsequent years, sanctions become more stringent. After five years of not meeting progress standards, the state may replace school staff and administration.

In Arizona, AYP determinations are made by using scores on the AIMS (Arizona Instrument to Measure Standards) test, and 95 per cent of a school’s students must take the test.

Mr. Horne said he did not feel the current method of determining if a school achieved AYP is an accurate assessment.

“The federal criteria is still in the early stages of development,” he said. “There are 144 ways to fail. You can be successful on 143 of the criteria, but if you fail just one, you fail. The system needs major changes to be fair and accurate.”

Mr. Horne said a better measure of how Arizona schools are doing will be available later this month when the department releases its rankings of how schools fared on the AIMS test. —