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Hernando Today

Schools Face Differences In State, Fed Standards

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By LINNEA BROWN

Hernando Today

Published: July 11, 2008

BROOKSVILLE - As the excitement wears off regarding the Hernando County School District's overall "A" grade for the first time in the history of the state's A Plus plan, officials are taking a closer look at schools that have not met federal standards.

Only four of the district's 20 schools - Brooksville, Pine Grove and Chocachatti elementary schools and Gulf Coast Academy - met the "annual yearly progress," or AYP, standard set by the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

The standard gauges the progress of subgroups of students, including minorities and students with disabilities.

However, only the district's Title I schools - which receive federal funding due to higher poverty rates - must make AYP to avoid what Florida Department of Education officials deem "penalties."

Of the district's 10 Title I schools, only Pine Grove is without sanctions, due to the school making AYP for two years.

The other nine are still being watched, and district officials are following federally mandated procedures to get them off the radar.

While federal AYP expectations are often viewed by critics as being unrealistic compared to state standards, Superintendent Wayne Alexander said the district will continue to closely monitor the individual strengths and weaknesses of students and teachers at each school to determine what changes need to be made.

"One of the things we'll continue to do is more frequent assessments, and the monitoring of those assessments," he said.

While most of the district's Title I schools made glowing overall school grades, based on Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test Scores - including three that maintained "A" grades and three that improved from "C" grades - schools only have two options for AYP: pass or fail.

But a simple yes or no verdict doesn't tell the whole story, said Diane Dannemiller, the district's supervisor of federal programs.

A school can make gains in all but one of the subgroups, but that one group causes the school to miss the overall AYP mark. An initial look at data shows that most schools made gains in the subgroups, which helped the district's overall performance, Dannemiller said.

Generally, Hispanic students and students with disabilities fell short of the benchmarks, she said.

When a school does not meet AYP and is in need of improvement, it does not lose money. In fact, the federal government actually provides more funding in future years, though each year's sanctions require additional work for district officials.

"The state takes 4 percent off the top for administrative costs, and through that comes the school improvement initiatives," Dannemiller said.

The highest is a level five, or a school that has not made AYP in six years.

Two of Hernando's school's fall into this category this year: Spring Hill Elementary and West Hernando Middle, which are both currently implementing restructuring plans.

The plans were required to be formulated last year, with five federally specified criteria that included forming a district team of parents, staff and administrators to examine data and brainstorm ways to help each school meet AYP the following year.

The chain of federal sanctions starts with schools that fail to meet AYP for two consecutive years, requiring schools to provide transportation for parents who would prefer to send their children to better-performing or non-Title I schools.

If parents opt to send them elsewhere, students on the lowest end of the economic spectrum and who have earned the lowest scores on the FCAT are given first priority of choice, Dannemiller said.

In a school's third year, schools must provide choice transportation and offer supplemental education services - or tutoring from private providers - for students receiving free or reduced lunch.

In a school's fourth year, the schools must offer transportation to different schools, tutoring and school officials must write a "corrective action" plan, to be implemented the following year. Four local schools will spend the year doing this: Brooksville, Moton and Deltona elementary schools and Parrott Middle Schools.

The fifth year, school officials must implement the corrective action plan, while also using the year to plan for a comprehensive restructuring plan for the following year. The three local schools now in this category include Eastside and Westside Elementary Schools and Fox Chapel Middle School.

The sixth year, the restructuring plan is implemented, as is now being done at Spring Hill and West Hernando.

Once a school has made AYP for two years in a row, it is taken off the list.

Hernando was one of 32 of the state's 67 public schools that received an overall "A" ranking, with 18 area schools receiving either an "A" or "B" grade.

On a federal level, fewer than one in four of Florida's schools met AYP standards.

But even if the standards are unrealistic, officials often have no choice but to follow federal procedure.

"Because we receive these federal funds, there are strings attached," Dannemiller said.

Reporter Linnea Brown can be reached at 352-544-5289 or lbrown@hernandotoday.com.

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