Under the 'No Child' Microscope
After Missing Test Goals, Arlington School Under Mandate to Restructure

By Theresa Vargas
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, October 20, 2008

Like a struggling student in a class of high achievers, Hoffman-Boston Elementary School has fallen into an unenviable position. It is the first school in Northern Virginia under a federal mandate to restructure because of lagging student performance.

Yet while Arlington County educators search for ways to improve Hoffman-Boston, where black students' scores this year missed the mark, experts say more schools like it in the region and the nation will face the same order soon as the federal No Child Left Behind law forces states to raise academic goals for all students.

"What's challenging is they are under a microscope, but they aren't terribly different than other schools," Mark Johnston, assistant superintendent of instruction in Arlington, said of the small school near the Pentagon. "I think there are reasons why schools don't make targets, and it's easy when those reasons are clear and evident. It's not easy when they're not."

The 2002 law requires schools to show progress every year on reading and math tests in grades three through eight and once in high school, with a goal of all students passing by 2014. States are required to track scores of various groups of students, including racial and ethnic minorities, those with disabilities, those who come from low-income families and those with limited English skills.

Failure of any group to meet yearly targets raises a red flag, and repeated misses can trigger a range of sanctions. Schools that receive certain federal poverty aid, including Hoffman-Boston, can be ordered to offer free tutoring and transfers to better-performing schools. Those that fall short six straight years may face a shakeup through the remedy known as restructuring.

Restructuring means reopening as a charter school, replacing staff, handing over management to a private company or making any other major change. Many educators prefer the latter option because it is the most flexible. That is the case in Arlington. For Hoffman-Boston, major change means a larger role for the central office.

Johnston now meets at least once a month with Principal Yvonne Dangerfield and other administrators. Superintendent Robert G. Smith has the final say when decisions cannot be reached by consensus. The school, with about 315 students through fifth grade, will also continue to offer tutoring and transfers. Officials said 14 of the school's families chose to transfer their children this year. Dozens of students receive tutoring.

Dangerfield, who has led the school for five years, is aware of the stigma of labels.

"Needless to say, every principal wants to be in a school that is recognized as a successful school," Dangerfield said. But she said the school is making progress. "Our teachers are teaching, our students are learning and our families are extremely supportive of their children."

This school year, 27 D.C. schools are in restructuring. In Maryland, 82 elementary and middle schools are in restructuring or planning for it, officials said. In Virginia, Hoffman-Boston is one of seven schools in restructuring; the others are in Petersburg, Essex County and Richmond. Randolph Elementary School, also in Arlington, is one of four Virginia schools planning for restructuring.

Experts say more suburban schools nationwide, including those from well-regarded systems like Arlington's, will soon be ordered to restructure.

"It's not just going to be a problem of the inner city. It's going to be a problem of many school districts," said Jack Jennings, president of the Center on Education Policy, based in the District. "This will come as a surprise to a number of school officials and to the public."

Last month, the center reported that nearly 3,600 schools were preparing or implementing restructuring plans during the 2007-08 school year, up 56 percent from the year before. The study also found that few schools at that stage of sanctions are able to reach the benchmark required to escape restructuring: two straight years of adequate progress on test scores.

"The whole thing has to be rethought," Jennings said. "I think one of the good things about No Child Left Behind is that it has directed attention to schools that have been in trouble for years. That doesn't mean it does it the right way."

More than three-fifths of Hoffman-Boston's students come from families poor enough to qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. About 43 percent are black, 30 percent Hispanic, 20 percent Asian American and 7 percent white.

Scores on Virginia's Standards of Learning tests last spring were good enough to earn state accreditation and showed gains among most students, including Hispanics, those identified as economically disadvantaged and those with limited English proficiency. But scores for black students remained stagnant, falling short of the target pass rates (75 percent for math and 77 percent for reading). Their rates were 70 percent in math, up one point from last year, and 66 percent in reading, the same as last year.

Dangerfield said the school is examining how to lift black student performance while maintaining the progress of others.

"The question then becomes, what is happening with this one group, or what is not happening?" Dangerfield said. "How come these children are not progressing at the same rate? They are here in the same school. They are in the same classes. What's happening?"

The school is not short of resources. Arlington boasts some of the smallest class sizes in the region, one computer for every five students and high schools that consistently rank among the nation's best. Hoffman-Boston even has a television studio in which students produce morning newscasts.

Teachers are pushing hard.

At lunchtime, school math coach Sara Minervino reminds fourth- and fifth-graders to wipe the day's menu from their hands before attempting to answer problems on the electronic whiteboard. She launched the lunchtime group "Magnificent Mathematicians" after realizing that it was hard to get students to stay after school.

"They love it," Minervino said. "They are so excited."

Minervino sees progress all the time. One boy who failed the math test in third grade, she recalled, entered fourth grade doubting his skills. But he scored high on the last round of tests.

"If you took him aside this year, he would think he was this amazing math student," Minervino said. "When you are in the inside, you know you are doing the right things and they are learning."