All area school corporations improved or stayed consistent this year over last year on Public Law 221 except Whitko Schools.
Whitko dropped from academic progress to academic watch.
PL 221 is Indiana's comprehensive accountability system for K-12 education. Passed by the Indiana General Assembly in 1999, the law aimed to establish major educational reform and accountability statewide, according to the Indiana Department of Education Web site.
To measure progress, PL 221 places Indiana school corporations and schools into one of five categories based on improvement and performance data from Indiana's ISTEP+ assessments. The categories are exemplary progress, commendable progress, academic progress, academic watch and academic probation.
Warsaw Schools Director of Assessment Terry Roe said PL 221 is pretty much a link to No Child Left Behind. The difference, however, is PL 221 also tracks school improvement, but No Child Left Behind doesn't. Schools that may not look so good with No Child Left Behind can be moved to higher standing on PL 221 if they improve.
No Child Left Behind requires every state to adopt an accountability system with regular testing in reading and math while leaving each state free to decide what material tests should cover, which tests to use, and how to define and measure student proficiency.
PL 221 category placements are based on performance, improvement and Adequate Yearly Progress.
No Child Left Behind requires that each year every public school and school corporation be designated by the Indiana Department of Education to have made AYP or not. Schools must meet AYP not only with total population, but also with any subgroups within the student body.
A school qualifies for a PL 221 category placement based on where it fits into a table graph measuring performance and improvement. Schools that do not make AYP under the federal No Child Left Behind Act for two consecutive years can place no higher than the academic progress category.
For example, the percentage of Warsaw Schools students passing is 79.2 percent. Their improvement percentage from 2006 over 2005 is 1.2 percent. That puts Warsaw Schools in the academic progress category. Last year Warsaw was on watch.
Wawasee Schools is on watch for a second year in a row. For Wawasee, 73.7 percent of students passed, but their improvement declined 0.2 percent from last year.
Tippecanoe Valley School Corp. moved this year from watch to commendable. Valley had 72.1 percent of students passed and improved 2.4 percent in 2006 over 2005.
Even though the state reports Whitko improved by 0.1 percent and 74.9 percent of its students passed, Whitko still dropped from academic progress to watch.
"Going back to looking at the increases, we had an increase in the number of special education students that affected our situation," said Superintendent Dr. Jeff Hendrix. The past few years, he said Whitko Schools did not have as many and that affects making AYP. With a bigger number of special education students, he said that can pull you down, even with progress being made.
To try to rectify Whitko's problem, Hendrix said the school corporation has programs that provide remediation opportunities for students.
With the state only funding 50 percent of summer school this year, instead of 100 percent as Hendrix said they had been told, that will limit the help the school corporation can offer to students in the summer. What funding Whitko does receive this summer will be used to help high school students prepare for passing the Graduation Qualifying Exam. However, he said they will do whatever they can to help students.
Triton Schools remain as "commendable" for another year. Their improvement is 2.1 percent, with 77.6 percent of students passing.
Manchester Community Schools moved from watch in 2005 to academic progress in 2006. The school corporation had 74.3 percent of students pass, with an improvement of 1.8 percent.
For more information and results, visit online at www.doe.state.in.us/pl221
