Nine Berkeley Schools Fail Federal Standards

For the second year in a row more than half of Berkeley schools failed to meet federal achievement standards set by the No Child Left Behind Act, according to a state Department of Education review released Thursday.

Most of those schools, however, have followed federal recommendations for improvement since last year and have seen gains in academic performance, said Berkeley Unified School District Spokesperson Mark Coplan.

Sixty-five percent of California schools met the act's Adequate Yearly Progress requirement for standardized test scores, up from 62 percent last year, said education department officials.

Six Berkeley schools that failed to meet provisions for at least two years in a row could face state sanctions.

Whittier Elementary School, which missed the achievement standard by "inches," will enter the first round of federal sanctions this year, department officials said.

The school must notify parents of its status and give students the choice to transfer to another elementary school in the district. It is also required to allocate a portion of its state funds toward staff development.

According to the federal Yearly Progress Requirements, schools are not just accountable for total campus performance, but for all socioeconomic subgroups within its population.

Nine out of 17 Berkeley schools failed in one or more subgroups. For example, African Americans at Whittier Elementary School missed math proficiency by less than two percentage points, causing the whole school to fail by federal standards.

"One student can change a school's rating-the subgroup system is incredibly complicated," Coplan said.

Some Berkeley public schools met all proficiency requirements but had inadequate test attendance in one or more subgroups.

In most cases, 95 percent of students must be present for testing for schools to meet federal standards, officials said.

Coplan said most schools in Berkeley are improving state testing scores but are unable to get off the federal list of failing schools.

"Schools are set up to fail," he said. "The No Child Left Behind people expect us to make two years of improvement in one year. We'll never please them."

African American students at Whittier Elementary School made significant gains on the math portion of the federal review, while scores from white students dropped, officials said.

Rosa Parks Elementary School in West Berkeley is entering its fifth year of federal failure, but is unlikely to face sanctions like state takeover because it has followed all federal improvement recommendations, Coplan said.

"The state will not step in because our schools are doing well," he said. "Most students in the Bay Area would love to get into the district."

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