Half of schools in Mass. fall short

Federal standards getting tougher

Half of all Massachusetts public schools this year failed to meet achievement standards established by the state under the No Child Left Behind Act.

That includes 100 of 143 public schools in Boston, according to a report released yesterday by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

The number of underachieving schools rose sharply from last year, when 37 percent failed to meet performance standards under the federal law.

Commissioner of Education Mitchell Chester said the schools aren't getting worse - federal guidelines are getting tougher.

"Under the federal accountability system that raises the bar each year, it's not surprising that more of our schools have been identified," Chester said. But he added the new data "serve to highlight where we still have more work to do."

The results will require schools to consider a range of actions, ranging from replacing staff to changing the curriculum to rethinking budget priorities. In the most severe cases, the 277 schools that have failed to meet federal standards for five years will be designated for various measures of restructuring, which in some cases could lead to lengthened school days, fewer union restrictions, or greater state oversight.

Under No Child Left Behind, all students must reach proficiency in English and math by 2014. The law, signed into effect in 2002, leaves it to each state to define its own standard of "proficiency" and measure how well schools are progressing toward that target.

Massachusetts established a system that requires students to score in one of the top two MCAS test categories - advanced or proficient - to meet that standard. It also established annual benchmarks that require an ever-increasing percentage of students at each school to score at that level each year.

Glenn Koocher, executive director of the Massachusetts Association of School Committees, said this system is much more aggressive in its timetables for reaching goals than those in other states and accounts for the rising number of underperforming schools.

And it will only get more difficult, he said, as the 2014 deadline approaches.

"Ultimately, we expect as many as 80 percent of schools not to meet the standards," Koocher said. "Massachusetts has chosen the highest accountability standard in the country. It's a mathematically impossible threshold. It creates a system where more and more schools fail to make adequate progress.

The schools are judged on overall student performance as well as the performance of subgroups based on race/ethnicity, family income level, and special education.

If a school or one of its subgroups fails to meet standards for two consecutive years, the state identifies the school as "needing improvement" and allows parents to request their children be transferred to better-performing schools in their district. If problems continue for an additional two years, the school is designated as requiring "corrective action," meaning the schools must make significant changes that could include staffing, curriculum, or teaching philosophy.

The mandate to "restructure" comes after five substandard years. In such cases, the state might lean on schools to take drastic action and operate under the close supervision of state education officials. Reversing that status takes two consecutive years of score improvements.

This year, 137 schools require overall restructuring, up from 77 last year. There were 140 additional schools that require restructuring because of underperforming subgroups, up from 114 last year.

In Boston, where the number of underperforming schools rose 6 percent, 34 schools require overall restructuring, up from 19 last year. Another 13 schools require restructuring as a result of lagging subgroups, up from 11 last year.

"It is clear we must increase our focus on schools that have not reached all of their targets - including some that fell short by a very narrow margin, or those cited for improvement among only one or two student subgroups," Boston's school superintendent, Carol R. Johnson, said in a statement.

She said the state figures do not reflect successes at many underperforming schools. "We believe that there are impressive success stories among schools in corrective action and restructuring, just as there are impressive success stories among schools in good standing."

But she added, "We cannot be satisfied until every school in Boston is in good standing, and until every student achieves proficiency."

Chester said the department will revamp the program that helps schools and districts meet the standards, focusing on curriculum and instruction, as well as leadership.

"We do not take the accountability status of any school or district lightly, but we also do not consider the schools to be failures," said Chester.

The report shows that middle schools especially had trouble. Seventy-five percent of middle schools in the state were considered underperforming, compared with 25 percent of high schools and 45 percent of elementary schools.

Fifty-one percent of underperforming schools this year are in nonurban districts. For example, Oak Bluffs, Lincoln, and Dover were among the 16 districts identified as not meeting standards this year for the first time due to underperforming subgroups.

"In a study we did four years ago, we anticipated that high-performing school districts would not be meeting standards," said Tom Scott, executive director of the Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents.

"We should take another look at how we evaluate schools."