Three BVSD schools sanctioned for failing to make progress

Three Boulder Valley schools that receive federal money for low-income students failed to make "adequate yearly progress" last year, according to state standards, and they're taking steps to correct their problems.

Of the seven Boulder Valley Title I schools, University Hill, Columbine and Pioneer elementary schools will be sanctioned this year for failing to make adequate progress several years in a row. Two Title I schools, Emerald and Sanchez elementary schools, didn't make adequate progress for the first year, meaning they won't be sanctioned unless they fall short again.

Overall, 23 Boulder Valley schools out of 64 failed to make adequate yearly progress on Colorado Student Assessment Program tests in the 2008-09 school year, according to state statistics made public Friday.

That is a slight improvement over the previous year, when 24 schools fell short, and it still puts Boulder Valley above other districts in the state, said Superintendent Chris King.

"We are unusually high-performing and have a persisting achievement gap," King said. "Those are the big takeaways."

The St. Vrain Valley School District had 23 schools out of 51 fail to make adequate yearly progress, according to the state. The district has four Title I schools on sanctions.

Adequate yearly progress standards fall under the federal "No Child Left Behind" rules. The federal expectation is that nearly all students reach at least a "partially proficient" level on the state's reading and math tests by 2014.

On the district level, Boulder Valley -- because it didn't make adequate progress -- must draft a plan of how its schools will reach at least partial proficiency by the goal date. Individually, Title I schools on the sanctions list must take more aggressive measures to solve their shortcomings.

At University Hill -- which has fallen short of making adequate progress for five years and is in a state-mandated "restructuring planning" year -- administrators are working with the Colorado Department of Education to create a plan to restructure the school.

Columbine and Pioneer both have missed the mark for three years and are in their second "school improvement year." Both schools are continuing to work with the state to make improvements, said Boulder Valley assessment director Jonathan Dings.

All three schools on state sanctions were forced to send letters to parents giving them the option to transfer to a different school without paying extra for transportation. They also had to provide tutoring services to students, and Dings said some parents already have expressed interest in the after-school help.

"We are now in the process of having that set up," he said.

Although the state threatens to take over schools that fail to make adequate yearly progress for too many years, King said he doesn't believe that is realistic, and he said no Boulder Valley schools are at risk of being taken over.

"They are not running in and taking over schools," King said. "They are not in the business of running schools. They want to help us."

King said that while he wants the three sanctioned schools to perform better on CSAP tests, state standards are not a "perfect measure" of a school's success.

"It definitely carries some weight and provides us with a lot of detailed data that we can choose to make decisions with," King said. "But it doesn't give us everything we need to know."

When looking at the "total body of evidence," King said, the schools failing to make adequate yearly progress are "successful schools." To start, he said, all three of the sanctioned schools are popular with parents.

"Parent satisfaction is a measure of school success -- it's not the sole one, but it's a pretty good one," King said. "We want to improve CSAP scores, you bet. But there are a lot of good things going on in those schools."