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Charter School fails AYP
POCATELLO - The Pocatello Community Charter School did not make the grade on the Idaho Standardized Achievement Test for the first time in the institution's history.
Last week, District 25 announced only four of its 20 schools made adequate yearly progress, which is the state's measuring stick for requirements of the federal No Child Left Behind Act. Schools that fail to meet AYP once are put on ''alert'' status. Those that fail two or more consecutive years must submit improvement plans to the state. ''The reason we did not make (AYP) is because of our socio-economically disadvantaged subgroup,'' PCCS Dean Martha Martin said. ''If you don't make it in one subgroup, you don't make AYP.''
The school's staff is in the process of analyzing the results to find patterns that could help them identify solutions. Administrators and teachers will meet in early fall to discuss the matter. Martin said PCCS will then implement corrective measures on three levels - for the school as a whole, for individual grade levels and for individual students.
Martin said that because the charter school uses a different educational model than traditional public schools, fixing the problem will require different steps than District 25 schools will likely take. ''We learn through in-depth studies and investigations that have been designed by teachers rather than learning out of text books written by publishing companies,'' Martin said of PCCS's expeditionary learning model. ''We take these scores very seriously. Whether or not we agree with No Child Left Behind, we still have to live with it.''
Socio-economically disadvantaged students are among the dozens of subgroups targeted by the ISAT. Martin said as a Title 1 school, PCCS has a higher than average percentage of students who qualify for free or discounted lunches.
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