Uptick in 'No Child' failures largely due to suburban schools

For a glimpse at the numbers behind the news last week that nearly half of Minnesota's public schools are falling short of state benchmarks in reading and math, many suburban families need look no further than the school down the block.

According to the Minnesota Department of Education, 937 of 1,951 schools are not making "adequate yearly progress" under the 2001 No Child Left Behind law. The numbers represent a dramatic uptick from last year, when 727 schools didn't make the cut. And this year, suburban schools account for much of that change.

In the Rosemount-Apple Valley-Eagan School District, 17 of 31 schools -- including Eastview, Apple Valley, Rosemount and Eagan high schools -- were tagged by the state this summer as falling behind, compared with just five last year.

Those figures, from Minnesota's fourth largest district, are a striking illustration of statewide trends. The list of schools that aren't making adequate progress grew by 210 from last year, with about half the increase coming from metro-area schools outside the core Twin Cities.

By contrast, Minneapolis and St. Paul had only four more schools on the list than they did last year, out of about 160 schools in the two districts.

"Quite a lot of those urban schools are already on the list," said Charlie Kyte, executive director of the Minnesota Association of School Administrators.

A shifting target

By 2014, every student group is supposed to pass the tests. And as targets shift upward every year toward that ultimate goal, "It's going to be harder and harder for schools not to be identified in at least one area," Kyte said.

"I think the list is eventually going to get everybody," said Peter Zak, assistant principal at Eagan High School, which was tagged because one group -- students who receive free and reduced-price meals -- didn't perform well enough in math.

This year, the list "got" some high schools regarded as among the best in Minnesota, including Edina and Wayzata.

Larger schools such as Eagan High tend to have more students that fall into subgroups highlighted by the test, which gives the schools more chances to fall short of targets, Zak added.

"The idea that (No Child Left Behind and 'adequate yearly progress') are some magic accountability measure that people can easily look at (to see) which schools are doing well and which ones aren't is just an absolute joke, because every state has different measures and the bar keeps rising," said Tony Taschner, a spokesman for the Rosemount-Apple Valley-Eagan School District.

Competing needs

The district has long had an achievement gap, with many minority students struggling. The state benchmarks, because they break down the data, help schools focus on those students, Taschner said.

Still, suburban districts in particular face the challenge of juggling the needs of all their students, said Kyte, who pointed out that many parents move to the suburbs to enroll their children in good schools. Even while concentrating on smaller groups that aren't doing well, he said, districts "have to continue doing a very good job with their majority kids if they want their parents to continue having confidence in them."

Some parents say they still have that confidence.

Test results are important, but "you have to look at what is happening in the classroom," said Todd Lafrenz, whose daughter is entering second grade at Cedar Park Elementary. The Apple Valley school is the only one in the district that faces federally mandated consequences this year under No Child Left Behind. It's also the most racially diverse school in the district -- which is, Lafrenz said, why he enrolled his daughter.