Under the “No Child Left Behind” program instituted by President Bush, performance for Buncombe County schools has improved nearly 10%, according to the 2006 Annual Yearly Progress (AYP) Report.

by Clare Hubbard

The purpose of No Child Left Behind is to “close the achievement gap and make sure all students…achieve academic proficiency.” The AYP results, showing 31 out of 39 schools making adequate progress in the areas of reading and mathematics, were recently released by the N.C. Department of Public Instruction (NC DPI).

While these programs aim at monitoring the academic health of students through standardized methods, many teachers and administrators find the assessment process is discouraging to students. “I had a student come to our school who was in fifth grade but was reading at a second grade level. We brought him up to fourth grade level in six months or so, but when it was time to take the test [for fifth grade reading proficiency], he failed,” says Alida Woods, principal of Isaac Dickson Elementary School. “Though he improved by leaps and bounds from when he arrived, the test did not show this improvement.”




In addition to the AYP assessment, a program called the ABC’s program has been used to measure student capability and has recently undergone some changes as well. Additions to the program are described as “growth formulas,” and will:

•    use two years of prior student performance data in reading and mathematics to predict performance in the current year;
•    re-establish the baseline for the academic change scale when new tests are introduced;
•    separate change scores for reading and mathematics used to determine a school’s growth; and
•    provide student, classroom, and school-level data to schools.

A Blue Ribbon School of Excellence – and a failure in
the eyes of the A.Y.P.

Isaac Dickson Elementary has won many awards for its academic excellence and has received several grants and teaching awards. In 2004, Dickson was awarded the title of Blue Ribbon School for academic excellence, and in 2004-05 was recognized as a North Carolina School of Excellence.

Despite these awards, the school recently failed its AYP. “Expectations are higher than they’ve ever been,” says Woods. “The concept of the assessment process is excellent, but there are some very difficult issues that we need to address.”

One of these issues is the lack of minority students currently enrolled in the school and the grouping process instated by NCLB. Because the AYP assessment separates student bodies into subgroups, which include American Indian, Asian, Black, Hispanic, Multi-Racial, White, School as a Whole, Limited English Proficient, Economically Disadvantaged, and Students with Disabilities, some believe the AYP does not fully illustrate the success of the entire school. 95% of each subgroup must be tested, and of that percentage, 75% must pass a three-hour test in math and reading.


“It takes 40 students to comprise a subgroup. We have 43 African American students at Isaac Dickson, and so they just barely make a subgroup. In this assessment, the failure of one child can cause the whole group to fail. If we had 102 students in this subgroup, we’d have much more of a cushion,” says Woods.


The other subgroups at Isaac Dickson are white and free/reduced lunch. “We have a handful of Asian and Hispanic students as well, but not enough to make a subgroup. If we had a higher number of African Americans, we could really make a difference in learning assessment and student development. In the spot we’re in now, minority issues are difficult because the testing puts tremendous pressure on the students. Paper and pencil measures one day in a student’s life, yet this test can really affect their future,” Woods says.


Strict new requirements


Schools that do not pass their AYP and show no progress after a specific amount of time (depending on state regulation) must provide extra assistance to students in the form of after-school programs and free tutoring. If the school fails to make progress after five years, dramatic changes must be made to the way the school is run. Isaac Dickson is creating a new after-school program with the help of Hill Street Baptist Church, which will provide mentors for kids. The Building Bridges seminar will also be held at Dickson this coming fall.


Woods explains, “We are also working on reaching out to the African American community. We want Isaac Dickson to fit the African American vision of education. It is important that public schools mirror the community they serve. The school is named after the first African American member of the school board in Asheville. Our property sits on a part of what was once Stumptown,” one of Asheville’s historic African American communities. “We have begun work with the Stumptown group to learn about life in Stumptown. Children have collected artifacts and interviewed many people in the community. It is a long term project which has not been fulfilled yet,” says Woods.


Because the AYP states that if a school fails assessment numerous times it will have to undergo radical changes to the way it’s run, many schools are fearful that they will lose funding for projects that don’t exhibit immediate results to learning improvement, or that funding will be allocated into specific areas determined by assessment guidelines.


“We are not sure of how our budget will be affected. We know that $10,000 of our Title I money is set aside for staff development for this year. Last year we received an additional $10,000 AYP money for extra tutors,” says Woods.


The Catch-22


Schools that have failed the AYP face uncertainty about receiving funds for program improvement – program improvement that those same failing schools are required to undertake. Currently, Isaac Dickson is awaiting approval for funding for an after-school program at least two days a week for children who are underachieving. “It’s called the Need to Succeed Academy.


Tutors will work after school with no more than three children in reading, writing, and math, and children will work with a tutorial computer program. The mentor project is in its formative stage. We hope to find at least 15 mentors to work with some of our children who show most need an adult mentor,” says Woods.


Isaac Dickson Elementary School is part of the Foxfire Network of Teachers, an experiential instruction practice that follows 11 core practices to encourage student independence, diversity, collaboration, academic integrity, active learning, creativity, and rigorous, ongoing assessment and evaluation.

These practices area far cry from “teaching to the test,” which has been identified as a large component of the AYP assessment and which in recent years has become a standard approach for orthodox educators. As a result, many schools like Isaac Dickson are experiencing tension between state educational requirements and more experiential educational methods.

“Children learn best by doing,” Woods says. “All of us really work hard to remember that test scores are test scores, but our job is to educate the whole child, socially, intellectually and emotionally.”