Cyndi Loza

Despite the district making adequate yearly progress, 47 Washoe County schools failed to meet the standards of the No Child Left Behind testing for the 2007-08 school year, according to preliminary results announced Tuesday.

Superintendent Paul Dugan recommended new designations for schools in the district based on guidelines under the federal No Child Left Behind law and Nevada Revised Statutes. These laws require the school district to report annually how well schools met the standards for adequate yearly progress.

Fifty-three schools were recommended for designations of either adequate, high or exemplary achievement, but Dugan warned the testing methods under the federal law are misleading.

“(NCLB) is flawed and has been flawed from the onset,” Dugan said.

“It holds everyone to the same standard … and that’s not reasonable.”

For example, Dugan said, holding second-language learners and students with disabilities to the same standards as other students isn’t reasonable.

“I’m not trying to be funny, but if (students with disabilities) are expected to be held at the same level of proficiency, then why do they have a learning disability?”

If the recommended designations are approved by the school board, the results will be forwarded to the state department of education for final verification and official release.

Schools that have been designated as needing improvement for the fourth year in a row are Libby Booth, Rita Cannan, Echo Loder and Veteran’s Memorial elementary schools and Fred Traner Middle School.

“I think what it boils down to is an increase of support, oversight and assistance from the district,” school district spokesman Steve Mulvenon said.

Booth principal Stacey Ting-Senini said her school will

continue to make more time for reading and writing, subjects in which Booth has not made adequate yearly progress, according to NCLB.

She cited the school’s high transiency rate as a challenge, “but truly we don’t like to make excuses. We educate the students that come through that door as best we can.”

Education goes beyond what can be tested, Dugan said.

“The school’s primary role has to be to prepare students for success upon graduating, and that involves a lot more than what’s on the test,” Dugan said. “I’m much more interested in being held accountable for growth and that’s what I, as superintendent, hold our principals accountable for. If I see that, I don’t really care what NCLB says.”