By Keighla Schmidt, Staff Writer

With increased regulations in federal government’s requirements for Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) Burnsville-Eagan-Savage School District 191 did not make the grade this year.

But in spite of increasing sanctions, headway toward the goal of 100 percent proficiency was made, according to school district officials. Last year, five schools out of the total of 17 tested made AYP for 29.4 percent; this year six schools made it for 35.2 percent.

“Our teachers are working very, very hard and focusing their efforts to help students pass the MCA’s,” said Superintendent Randy Clegg.

For students from Savage attending District 191 schools, the schools that made AYP include M.W. Savage Elementary School and Harriet Bishop Elementary School; but schools not making AYP include Burnsville High School, Cedar Alternative Learning Center, Eagle Ridge Junior High School and Hidden Valley Elementary School.

AYP is measured through participation in standardized reading and math tests as well as the accompanying scores, attendance and graduation rates. It is measured as a requirement for the federal No Child Left Behind Act and the goal of the act is 100 percent proficiency by 2014. The requirements get incrementally more rigorous each year. Due to a change in the test the past few years the requirements were stagnant, now they will increase between 4 and 10 percent annually, depending on the subject and grade level.

Students are tested in eight different subgroups, broken down by racial/ethnic categories, students with disabilities, English-language learners and economically disadvantaged students as determined by the free- and reduced-lunch program. A pool of 40 students for each subgroup at each school must to be tested to qualify as a subgroup and District 191 qualified for as many as seven of the eight categories.

“It’s a good indicator of where efforts need to continue. We’re committed to doing what we need to do to close the achievement gap for our students,” Clegg said. “The ultimate goal is to not have a child’s background be a predictor on MCAs.”

The tests, though, carry significant weight.

“(The State Department of Education) look(s) at all the criteria, if you have one group that doesn’t pass, you don’t make it at all,” said Sandi Novak assistant superintendent of teaching and learning.

For example, at Hidden Valley Elementary, all subcategories except for black, special-education and free/reduced lunch students were proficient in reading and all students were proficient in math.

At Eagle Ridge Junior High, students were proficient in reading in all subcategories except free/reduced lunch. Math scores, however, did not meet the requirement in four of the seven tested categories: Hispanic, black, limited English proficient (LEP) and free/reduced lunch students.

All students tested at BHS tested at a proficient reading level. But like Eagle Ridge, four of the subcategories of students, did not pass the math tests: black, LEP, special education and free/reduced lunch.

The overall student population was not large enough to be broken into subgroups at Cedar Alternative Learning Center, but students did not pass either the math or reading tests.

“As we look at all the students, the two groups that didn’t make AYP were low-income children and special-education children,” Clegg said.

District 191 was tested at 17 institutions; special education students didn’t make AYP at seven of 16 tested campuses for both reading and math. Students qualifying for free- and reduced-lunches did not meet the requirements for reading at five of 16 tested schools and eight of 16 tested campuses in math.

The lone subgroup passing at all institutions in both math and reading was the Asian/Pacific Islander subgroup.

“(Pointing out) diversity is not intended as an excuse, it’s just the reality,” Clegg said. “The schools serve different populations … how one population learns isn’t always the same as another.”

Harriet Bishop, for example, had just two subcategories, white and free/reduced lunches. While BHS had six: Asian, black, white, LEP, special education and free/reduced lunches.

Clegg said one student can qualify for four subcategories and he is in the process of looking at how many students fit into multiple categories to get a better idea for the target population and how to focus the teaching.

“The strategy needs to be the most appropriate to the subgroup,” Clegg said. “We want to figure out what factors are most inhibiting to our students to do well on the MCAs … We hope to fine tune and bolster those areas.”

The ramifications for schools not making AYP is a mandated plan with increasing federal involvement depending on how many consecutive years an institution receiving Title I money has not made AYP. Non-Title I schools are not impacted by the federal government.

“For the district, we need to create a plan for improvement, which we have done each year, and update it,” Novak said.

That update will include a transportation option for parents of children attending three Burnsville elementary schools -- Edward Neill Elementary, Vista View Elementary and Sky Oaks Elementary -- which did not make AYP to a District 191 school that did make AYP.

“This is the first year this district has had to offer that,” Clegg said.

Clegg said the nationwide trend is that not many parents take the option of moving their students from one school to another, so he doesn’t anticipate many parents will transfer their kids. “Primarily because most people like the school they go to,” he said.

Last year’s plan for improvement worked at M. W. Savage Elementary as the school missed AYP requirements last year, but passed this year.

The reward, Novak said, is pleasure.

“There’s a satisfaction of doing a job well,” she said. “Knowing their students are performing well in all subgroups.”

 Keighla Schmidt can be reached at kschmidt@swpub.com.