Federal government asks Mo. to review failing schools

ST. LOUIS (AP) -- A federal team detailed dozens of problems with Missouri schools in a report last month, both minor infractions and major concerns about underperforming schools.

The U.S. Department of Education said Missouri should review every school and district that has not met standardized testing benchmarks more than two years in a row. That is about 200 schools and 167 districts, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

The federal No Child Left Behind law sets 2014 as the year when all schoolchildren are supposed to be proficient in reading and math. Built into the law are annual benchmarks for schools to meet and sanctions when they don't.

Every three years, the U.S. Department of Education checks to make sure each state is monitoring its schools correctly. It keep schools on track with the law and lets the government keep tabs on $14 billion it gives schools to help low-income students.

Some think the federal teams are coming down harder on states than they have in the past. Since the law took effect in 2002, U.S. teams have reprimanded nearly every state, according to past federal reports.

Zollie Stevenson, chief of federal Student Achievement and School Accountability Programs, and leader of the team that reviewed Missouri, said the state needs to be more proactive in monitoring its schools.

Schools that fall short most often could be forced to fire teachers and principals, reopen as charter schools, or even close. The federal team reserves the right to fine the state, as much as $500,000 this year.

"This is really a worst-case state," said Phyllis McClure, a consultant in Washington who helps monitor states on points of education law.

She was stunned Missouri hadn't been monitoring district progress more closely. The state had not asked to see district letters that should have been sent to parents, explaining that their children could be eligible for tutoring or transfers from failing schools, the report said.

Missouri also had not required evidence that districts were giving the right amount of federal money to each school. And while Missouri had monitored schools for test-score progress, it hadn't held districts accountable for low scores.

When schools failed tests, Missouri hadn't forced them down the federal improvement path that begins with tutoring and transfers and leads to restructuring, where schools must shut down and start over with new leaders.

"The whole point of this requirement, these stages of corrective action, was not to let these schools slide for so long before they got help," McClure said.

"Why have they been letting that go on for five years?" she asked.

Becky Kemna, Missouri's new coordinator of school improvement, said No Child Left Behind greatly increased requirements for schools.

Entire student bodies must meet yearly testing goals, but each group of students -- black, white, Asian, low-income, special-education and those learning English as a second language -- are held to the same standards. And those standards increase each year.

Other school administrators say No Child Left Behind demands the impossible, though they say they continue to work toward goals.

It has been difficult, Kemna said, for state employees to interpret all the new rules. Federal guidelines initially encouraged interpretation. Now this report, she said, has shown her the federal government doesn't tolerate as much flexibility as first thought.

Kemna said the state must respond to the U.S. Department of Education by the middle of this month. State officials fixed many of the problems cited before the federal team even left, she said, but others will take more effort.

The state will now ask to see letters before districts send them to parents. It also will compile yearly lists of districts that missed state testing goals and must be penalized.

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Information from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch: www.stltoday.com