Few Schools Meet Goal on New Tests

Clifford B. Janey says he wants to ensure students are employable. (Gerald Martineau - The Washington Post)

Under the Stanford 9, students were considered proficient if they scored at the 40th percentile. But the scale has been raised under the new exam. For instance, elementary students must now score in the 54th percentile in reading and the 78th percentile in math to be considered proficient.

"We see universities banning kids if they need remediation. We see businesses cutting back on the amount they spend on remediation," Superintendent Clifford B. Janey said yesterday at a community meeting to discuss the results. "It's up to us to make sure our students are gainfully employable . . . and able to finish college."

But officials at some schools, while praising the new exam, criticized Janey for not giving schools more time to adapt to all the changes.

"It would have made sense to stagger the changes over time," said Susan Schaeffler, executive director of the D.C. Knowledge is Power Program, which operates three charter schools in the District.

One KIPP campus, six-year-old KEY Academy in Southeast Washington, which had the highest math scores last year, made adequate progress. But a KIPP campus established last year, AIM Academy, also in Southeast, did not. Officials of the D.C. Public Charter School Board said results of other charter schools will be released later.

AIM's scores on the new exam do not reflect significant progress students made last year, Schaeffler said. On another exam, students scored in the 16th percentile in math -- meaning they scored better than 16 percent of students across the country -- in the fall and in the 77th percentile in April.

Janey said the system has hired a company to retrain teachers and provide academic enrichment programs for students. The system is planning to hold year-round classes at five schools and experiment with innovative ideas at 20 others. In the next few weeks, Janey will send letters to parents at the 118 schools giving them options to transfer to the 28 schools that made adequate yearly progress. Although in the past tens of thousands of students qualified for the transfer, only about 250 did so.

Iris Toyer, chairman of Parents United for the D.C. Public Schools, said the transfer policy is like shifting "the chairs on the deck of the Titanic." She said the latest test results should spur the system to focus more on improving schools.