Nevada Daily Mail

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Assistant Superintendent Christie Peterson provided the R-5 board of education with a report on the annual yearly progress mandated by the No Child Left Behind Act, during a meeting Wednesday night.

"In communication arts, the state mandates that 34.7 percent of all students taking the test score as proficient and advanced. We met that, with a score of 47.1 percent," Peterson said. "In addition they also require that subgroups be listed so we disaggregate the total to see how they are doing by subgroup. For students who receive a free or reduced price lunch its 34.5 percent which meets the criteria because of the CI, the confidence index which is similar to the standard deviation in statistics."

Peterson said the district did not have numbers for some subgroups because there were not enough members of those particular subgroups to be counted.

"We don't have enough of some of the groups to count, there needs to be 50 to be meaningful," Peterson said. "As the demographics change that will also change the subgroups that are counted."

Board president Scott Kennedy asked Peterson why Missouri was on a list of 10 states that were being criticized by the federal government. Peterson explained that while the federal guidelines mandated that all states must reach 100 percent of students reaching proficiency in three areas of instruction, it didn't mandate how they reached the goal.

"Many of the states set the goal at about 70 percent," Peterson said. "Missouri set the goal higher, at 85 percent and now has lowered the bar to where other states have set it."

Peterson explained that the state was working on getting a system in place to evaluate the old data to bring it in line with the new guidelines so districts could evaluate their progress over time.

Member Larry Forkner asked how the board could explain the differences between NCLB scores and scores on the Missouri Assessment Program tests.

"That's hard, it isn't something that can be easily explained," superintendent Craig Noah said. "There are school districts that are accredited with distinction that aren't meeting their NCLB goals. They are doing well on MAP tests and have excellent programs but fail in an area of the NCLB. The two are aiming at different targets."

Board member Steve Cubbage asked Noah about the end of the process, scheduled for 2014.

"What happens in 2014 when you're at 95 percent meeting proficient and advanced instead of 100 percent like NCLB mandates?" Cubbage asked.

Noah said that there were no incentives to meet the goal except negative ones.

"There will be no reward for meeting the goal except the lack of penalties," Noah said. "What happens in 2014 hasn't been addressed yet."