After failing to meet state and federal standards for five years, Rainier School District met its “adequate yearly progress” goals last year, staving off the threat of state intervention.

“If we hadn’t made AYP, we’d have faced state sanctions for improvement,” Rainier Superintendent Michael Carter said Tuesday. “They come in and say make a plan, which an outside agency writes for you, on how you’re going to correct deficiencies. We had already starting writing our own plans to guide us in our improvement.”

Under the federal No Child Left Behind Law, Oregon schools must make annual yearly progress (AYP) as measured by the state’s standardized exam.

All students take the state test, but only scores in reading and math from third, fifth, eighth and 10th grades are used for computing a school’s AYP. At least 95 percent of the students must take the standardized test.

At Hudson Park Elementary School, 84.5 percent of the students passed the reading test, well above the 60 percent target. In addition, 78.4 percent passed the math test, also above the target, 59 percent.

In the high school, 80.5 percent passed reading, a 10 percentage-point leap over last year and well above the target, 60 percent. About 74 percent passed the math test, well above the target, 59 percent.

In middle school level, 61.4 percent students passed the reading test and 67.6 passed math, both above the respective targets, 60 percent and 59 percent.

While noting that middle school math scores exceeded state targets, Carter said he’s troubled the school just squeaked by.

“To me, 61 percent is still not where we want to be,” he said. “We always want to be trying to hit 100 percent, but for now, we’ll be happy to hit 85 to 90 percent in upcoming tests.”

Although the district as a whole met AYP targets, the elementary school fell short in one area.

“We missed making AYP by one point at the elementary school,” Carter said. “It was because of the number of special population kids not passing the test.” Special population students include pupils who are low income or disabled.

Carter said cutbacks in staff and funding will make it difficult to keep meeting standards.

“We lost two instructional assistants, and they spent a lot of time one-on-one to help the kids prepare for the tests, along with losing a counselor and a teacher,” Carter said. “Any time you cut staff, you lose out in all areas.”

PROGRESS REPORT

This table indicates whether Rainier school students made annual yearly progress (AYP) under the federal No Child Left Behind law, as measured by state standardized test results. ‘Yes’ indicates the school made adequate progress.

RAINIER SCHOOL DISTRICT

Year                     Elementary         Jr./Sr. High           District

2003-04              Yes                        No                           No

2004-05              Yes                        No                           No

2005-06              Yes                        No                           No

2006-07              Yes                        No                           No

2007-08               No                         No                           No

2008-09               No                         Yes                         Yes

Source: Oregon Department of Education