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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- Thirty-four of the elementary, middle and junior high schools in Utah failed to meet new minimum proficiency standards, state education officials said.
Another 65 schools are appealing their reports and have yet to receive a grade. Setting aside those schools, about 93 percent of the schools that have been graded were judged to have passed.
This is the first time Utah schools have been graded as either passing or needing assistance through the Utah Performance Assessment System for Students -- U-PASS.
High schools with a 12th grade were not part of the U-PASS accountability program this year, but will be next year as graduation rates are figured in the evaluations.
The schools that passed either had at least 75 percent of their students deemed proficient in language arts, math and science or had a substantial number of students making considerable progress toward proficiency.
"These first-year results give meaning and context to the U-PASS testing system," state Superintendent of Public Instruction Patti Harrington said Monday. "What we especially like about U-PASS is that it gives students and teachers credit for growth in their learning."
That aspect differs from the federal system under the No Child Left Behind law, which judges performance by comparing information on groups of students with information from the previous year.
The federal law also requires that schools be judged on the progress of individual student subgroups, such as Latino, black, low-income and disabled students. U-PASS tracks the progress of such student subgroups, but lumps their test results together in judging school progress.
Critics of U-PASS contend it hides the failure of schools to educate students with challenges.
Some minority advocates believe the state is falling short in its compliance with NCLB's requirements to narrow achievement gaps between at-risk students and their peers.
(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
