Metro Schools released its No Child Left Behind data for the most recent academic year (today/yesterday), claiming significant improvement over the prior year.
Of the district’s 133 schools, 94 met adequate yearly progress. That’s up from 84 schools one year before.
Still, Davidson County is listed as one of four ‘high priority’ districts in the state. Metro Schools director Pedro Garcia contends the district was just one percentage point shy of coming off the list, in the area of students with disabilities. The district also slipped by 8-percent in reading scores for recent immigrants.
“English Language Learners, I think you’ve got to give them at least two years or three years in the country before you start testing them. I know because I was a Spanish speaker before I came here and I had a 10th grade education, and you get kids from Somalia who don’t even know what a bathroom looks like and you give them a test on reading. That’s just, you know…”
Metro Schools has the largest immigrant population in the state. Not counting other countries of origin, 13-percent of the district is Hispanic.
Garcia considers the adequate yearly progress figure the most important in the federal rating system because it shows a school is improving, even while on a warning list. But Garcia remains a critic of No Child Left Behind, which is up for reauthorization this year. For one, it takes one year to get on the high priority list and two years to get off. Secondly, Garcia says NCLB doesn’t fairly account for students with extreme disabilities.
Because of the district’s rating, the state could choose to take over the school system. Garcia says that won’t happen. But as in years past, the rating allows parents to transfer their children to other schools within the district.
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