Lebanon Middle School Lands on Warning List

Eastern Connecticut schools fail to meet state standards
8 of 11 in Norwich on the list
advertisement
Loading content...

* Related Links

On the Web

* Connecticut public schools report

By ADAM BOWLES
Norwich Bulletin
Posted Sep 01, 2009 @ 11:19 PM

More than two dozen local schools landed on the state’s list of those that failed to make adequate yearly progress as required by the federal No Child Left Behind act.

The list, which is released to the public today, was determined by 2008 results of the Connecticut Mastery Test in elementary and middle schools and the Connecticut Academic Performance Test in high schools.

Reading deficiencies plagued elementary and middle schools statewide and math deficiencies hurt high schools.

In Norwich, seven of nine elementary schools failed to meet the necessary academic standards and one of the two middle schools fell short.

Norwich Superintendent Pamela Aubin said among the sanctions her district faced was the requirement to notify all parents of their option to send their children to “safe harbor” schools, or schools that met the performance standards.

Bishop Elementary School, Huntington Elementary School and Teachers’ Memorial Middle School are the designated safe harbor schools, but Aubin said a rush of new students would overwhelm these schools because they are at virtual capacity and there’s no money for portable classrooms or more teachers.

She said enrollment will be open until Sept. 11.

Aubin also said the act of sending the district’s neediest students — those who are eligible for free and reduced lunch or have significantly low test scores or both — to the safe harbor schools likely would keep those schools from making adequate progress next year.

“I can’t tell you how complicated and impractical this is,” Aubin said.

Similar to last year

About 60 percent of Connecticut’s schools met the performance standards — 406 schools did not meet the No Child Left Behind standard, compared to 408 last year.

Under No Child Left Behind, the standards increased last school year to require that roughly eight in 10 students achieve at or above proficient level on state-administered math and reading tests in order to meet the standard of “adequate yearly progress.”

This school year’s standards remained the same as last year. The standards will rise in 2010 to require that about nine in 10 students meet the proficiency standards in math and reading, and rise again to 100 percent of students by 2013-14.

“This is the place where all schools are going to be in a couple of years when standards get to absolutely impossible levels,” Killingly Superintendent William Silver said of schools like the ones in his district that failed to meet the standards.

Don’t teach the test

Silver said despite the pressure to achieve progress as determined by the federal government, districts should focus on the quality of education and not focus its curriculum solely on test content or drill students on test preparation.

State Education Commissioner Mark K. McQuillan said in a prepared statement Tuesday that districts marked by poverty have a greater challenge in meeting the standards.

McQuillan’s office is calling for a greater emphasis on math and science in secondary school reform proposals, which it plans to send to the 2010 General Assembly.
Federal law

Under the No Child Left Behind standards, for a school to achieve adequate yearly progress, standards must be met by the whole school and by each subgroup of 40 or more students, including white, black, Hispanic, American Indian and Asian students; students with disabilities; English language learners; and economically disadvantaged students.

If a school or subgroup does not achieve adequate yearly progress in the same content area for two consecutive years, the school is identified as “in need of improvement.”

Schools that don’t meet the standards face various sanctions, depending on how long they have been on the state’s list.

Those sanctions include creating a school improvement plan that targets the areas of deficiency, giving students the opportunity to transfer to another public school within the district that has not been identified as “in need of improvement” and offering tutoring and other supplemental educational services. In the worst situations, schools must revamp their entire system.

At a glance Eastern Connecticut elementary, middle and high schools that failed to make “adequate yearly progress” or are in “need of improvement” as determined by the federal No Child Left Behind act include:

Brooklyn
Brooklyn Middle School

Colchester
Jack Jackter Intermediate School
William J. Johnston Middle School

Griswold
Griswold Elementary School

Killingly
Killingly High School
Killingly Intermediate School
Killingly Memorial School

Lebanon
Lebanon Middle School

Ledyard
Ledyard Middle School

Lisbon
Lisbon Central School

Norwich
Greeneville Elementary School
John B. Stanton Elementary School
John M. Moriarty Elementary School
Kelly Middle School
Thomas W. Mahan Elementary School
Uncas Elementary School
Veterans’ Memorial Elementary School
Wequonnoc Elementary School
Integrated Day Charter School

Plainfield
Plainfield High School

Putnam
Putnam Elementary School
Putnam High School
Putnam Middle School

Sterling
Sterling Community School

Thompson
Mary R. Fisher Elementary School

Plainfield Central School and Thompson Middle School improved scores to the point that they were removed from “in need of improvement” status.