Kimball school district superintendent, Dr. Scott Thielman, is pleased with the report cards Kimball area schools received from the Minnesota Department of Education two weeks ago. The report cards, in accordance with the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), determine whether a school meets its Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) requirements. This year, report cards were issued for both Kimball Elementary School (KES) and the Kimball Area High School (KAHS). While there isn’t a middle school in Kimball, a separate report card was issued for the junior high school students at KAHS. The report cards graded schools on reading and mathematics tests. The ultimate goal of the NCLB act is to ensure students in all schools across the nation are proficient in both English and mathematics by 2014. Schools receive stars based on their grades, and must have three out of five to make the AYP list. AYP is a process that measures a school’s improvement from its current level to the level desired by the NCLB act. Kimball schools each scored three stars on its report cards. “Three stars shows adequate progress,” said Thielman. “It means that we are right on track.” Not showing progress On the other hand, Thielman feels that the report cards don’t exactly revealing a school’s progress. This year, the only students tested at the elementary level were in third and fifth grade. But that doesn’t really give parents an idea of the progress the school has made. Instead, he says it would be best to measure the progress of KES by starting with the percentage of third-graders scoring in Level Five reading in 2002. Back then, that number was only 4.55 percent. In 2004, the same group of students were fifth-graders, and 14 percent of them scored in Level Five reading. According to the Minnesota Department of Education’s Web site, Level Five scores represent academic achievement that is beyond what is expected at grade level. Level One scores indicate that the student has major gaps in knowledge and skills needed for adequate grade-level work. Thielman said the goal of the schools in the Kimball district is to basically increase the number of students in Levels Three, Four and Five, while steadily decreasing the number of students in Levels One and Two. In 2002, 13 percent of the third-graders were in Level One reading. That group was down to 2 percent in 2004. All of these numbers, Thielman said, clearly indicate the level of progress the students at KES have made. “That is what people should look at,” Thielman said. “I would give the teachers and the kids five stars each. It is something to be proud of.” Special education While Kimball schools received good report cards, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports that 479 schools across the state failed to make the AYP list. One thing many of those schools have in common is a high number of special education students. Thielman explained that these schools are on the list because there is a direct conflict between NCLB and the Individuals with Disability Act (IDA). The latter act dictates that schools provide an appropriate education plan for a child with a disability. On the other hand, NCLB, implemented by President Bush in January 2002, says that only 1 percent of the school’s student population may be exempted from taking the reading and mathematics tests. In the case of KAHS where there are 428 students, if there were 40 students in special education, that would make 9.3 percent of the student population. With NCLB only giving exemption to 1 percent, the remaining 8.3 percent of the special education students would have to take the tests. It is an unfair rule, Thielman said, because a student is placed in special education for a reason. Certain disabilities prevent students from learning at the same rate as the rest of the grade. But because of the No Child Left Behind Act, any number of students that exceed the 1 percent exemption rule will have to take a grade-level test. “It is going to frustrate the (special education) student,” Thielman said. Special education students may opt to not take the test, but their scores will be counted anyway. Students who score in Levels Three to Five receive one point. Students who score at Level Two receive half a point, and Level One-scoring students receive no points at all. If a special education student isn’t able to score on any level higher than one, that extra zero score will eventually pull down the overall percentage. “Schools are up in arms about it, but people don’t know about this,” Thielman said. Problems like this, he said, will need to be resolved by revisions on the NCLB act. If not, he added, there may come a time when all the schools in the state will fail to make the AYP list.
