Public school ratings are an important element of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act. This article has an overview of public school ratings, examples of school plans, and statistics on public school ratings.

The 2001 Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), often called the “No Child Left Behind” (NCLB) law, was signed into law on January, 2002. It requires that by 2014, all students in all schools be proficient in math, reading, and language arts. To this end, it has established a system to ensure that local education agencies (LEAs) are showing adequate yearly progress (AYP). To this end, each state has to have a public school rating plan in place. Keep reading for more information on public school ratings.

Overview of Public School Ratings

Each state's plan set the proficiency levels that it must achieve each year. The proficiency is measured by annual tests and related indicators. The state accountability system has to meet certain criteria. It must:

• include all schools and districts and hold them all to the same criteria
• issue report cards and implement rewards and sanctions based on results
• include graduation rates as one of the additional indicators
• establish starting points for the Adequate Yearly Progress calculation and set objectives for improvement.

Examples of School Plans

Here is an example from the state of California, showing its separate objectives for Math and English/Language Arts based on the California Standards Tests:

ELA    Year  Math

13.6% 2002 16.0% (Starting Points)

24.4% 2005 26.5% (Intermediate Goals)

35.2% 2008 37.0%

46.0% 2009 47.5%

56.8% 2010 58.0%

67.6% 2011 68.5%

78.4% 2012 79.0%

89.2% 2013 89.5%

100.0% 2014 100.0% (Final Goals)

Vermont uses the New England Common Assessment Program (NECAP) and the New Standards Reference Exam and chooses to set progress goals by the annual measurable objective, which is defined in the state plan, with proficiency being defined as 500 points. Meeting the AMO is part of demonstrating AYP.

	3-8	3-8	3-8 & 10	3-8 & 10	9-12	9-12
Year	Math AMOs	Reading AMOs	Math AMOs	Reading AMOs	Math AMOs	Reading AMOs
2006	390	403	341	377	326	384
2007	390	403	341	377	326	384
2008	427	435	394	418	384	423
2009	427	435	394	418	384	423
2010	427	435	394	418	384	423
2011	463	468	447	459	442	462
2012	463	468	447	459	442	462
2013	463	468	447	459	442	462
2014	500	500	500	500	500	500

Results

In the National Center for Education Statistics table of state ratings, it is possible to see what percentage of schools in each state failed to achieve AYP in 2004-2005 (the most recent year for which data is given), with data not being available for Arkansas or Nebraska, and only high school data being given for New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont.

Looking at the column that shows “Percent of schools that did not make AYP based on data from 2004-2005,” we can see that the national percentage of schools not making AYP--26%--is higher than the percentage for 28 of the states. Hawaii has the highest AYP at 66%, with Florida close behind at 64%. Wisconsin has the lowest AYP at 2% , with Oklahoma close behind with 3%.

Here is a chart showing how things stack up.

% of schools not making AYP	States
2	Wisconsin
3	Oklahoma
7	Montana, Tennessee
9	Iowa, Kansas, North Dakota
11	Mississippi
12	Michigan
13	Minnesota, Texas, Utah
14	Arizona
16	Louisiana, South Dakota
17	West Virginia
18	Georgia
19	Pennsylvania, Virginia
20	Connecticut, New York, Washington, Wyoming
23	Maine
24	Ohio
25	Colorado, Maryland
26	Delaware, Kentucky
27	Illinois
32	Oregon
35	Missouri
38	California
39	New Jersey
40	Indiana
41	Alaska
42	North Carolina
43	Idaho, Massachusetts
47	Alabama
53	Nevada, New Mexico, South Carolina
55	District of Columbia
64	Florida
66	Hawaii

Obviously, this data needs to be contextualized to be appropriately interpreted. For example, information about students who are not native speakers of English and students with disabilities would throw light on this data.

Sources

National Center for Education Statistics - nces.ed.gov

NY Times - nytimes.com

Ed.gov Approved State Accountability Plans - ed.gov

Schoolwisepress - schoolwisepress.com