Sharon Vaughn

Staff Photo by Lesley Onstott
A group of Ringgold sophomores — from left, Nick Molleck, Kensey Scholl, Jazzi Hill and Jordan McCoy — dissect a fetal pig as part of an honors biology class Friday. The class spent the beginning of the period working on the biology exercise before completing literacy exercises.

RINGGOLD, Ga. -- The performance of small groups of students often gives an undeserved black eye to schools and students that are otherwise making the grade, according to Ringgold High School Principal Sharon Vaughn.

Ms. Vaughn said almost all her students met federal No Child Left Behind standards Average Yearly Progress benchmarks in 2009 but the few who didn't landed her school and the rest of its students on the "did not meet AYP" list.

The distinction shouts failure for schools like hers when the majority of students have done well, she said.

Like several other Northwest Georgia schools that didn't meet AYP goals, records show Catoosa County schools came up short among the "economically disadvantaged" and "children with disabilities" testing subgroups.

Ringgold High was among four Catoosa County schools that failed to meet AYP in initial testing last spring, records show.

AYP measures year-to-year student achievement based on math and reading test scores, attendance, graduation rates and other factors. NCLB aims to have 100 percent of students performing at their grade level in math and reading by 2014.

Ringgold High's economically disadvantaged group failed to make AYP in language. The group was forced to take the test again over the summer so the school could meet AYP benchmarks and get off the list when final AYP numbers were released this fall.

NCLB forces schools to focus resources on subgroups rather than the rest of the school population, she said. Ever-increasing demands of NCLB almost guarantee schools will have trouble with making goals repeatedly, she said.

Georgia Rep. Tom Dickson, R-Cohutta, said Ms. Vaughn is probably right about the declining level of fairness, but NCLB has had its successes, too.

"In fairness to NCLB -- it's not a bill that I'm real fond of; I think there are real problems with it -- but the reality is it has caused us to improve instruction to minority groups," Mr. Dickson said.

Special education students have probably benefited most because they were the target of more teaching resources than ever, he said.

But there are also areas where subgroups can falter and cause their schools to slip below goals, he said.

"I have real concerns with this labeling of schools and certainly the terminology," Rep. Dickson said.

"We've kind of gotten away from call them 'failing schools' and that was the predominant language that you heard in the early years of No Child Left Behind," he said.

But often schools can't reach AYP because "there's a subgroup that may be under-performing," he agreed.

He said federal officials might tweak the NCLB program en route to reauthorizing the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.

Jo Ann Webb, spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Education, said U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan is crisscrossing the country to learn how to refine NCLB when the act is reauthorized.

"He's been talking parents, teachers, students, community leaders, education officials, trying to figure out what's working with NCLB, what's not working and what needs to change," Ms. Webb said. "He's still doing that. At this point, we don't know official changes might be used on No Child Left Behind."

Ms. Vaughn agrees that NCLB left a positive mark on schools and her profession in the beginning.

"I knew I had kids who weren't making it, but I guess I spent most of my time on the kids I knew could," she said. "That was wrong, I guess, and the law fixed that.

"But now, because of the law, the entire success of a high school depends on the success or failure of a subgroup of kids."

LEARN MORE

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan is visiting communities across the country to hear from parents, teachers, students, citizens, and others about the No Child Left Behind Act and education reform. To see information on the tour or to learn more about NCLB, go to www.ed.gov/index.jhtml.