NF ISD fails to meet ‘No Child Left Behind’ standards

By BOBBY HORN JR.
A recent report by the Texas Education Agency shows that about half of the campuses within North Forest ISD failed to meet the Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) standards that are part of the federal No Child Left Behind law.
Schools that receive federal funds must meetstandards set by the No Child Left Behild law which measures AYP based on state standarized testing, attendance and graduation rates. To meet the AYP both campuses, and district as a whole, must have 95% student participation, 60% passage in reading/ English or Language Arts and 50% passage rate in math. These represent a 7 and 8% increase respectively in reading and math over 2006 requirements.
TEA Acting Commissioner Robert Scott said that statewide 88% of districts met AYP standards. North Forest ISD was one of 149 in Texas not to meet the standard.
Preliminary reports show that Smiley and Forest Brook High, Kirby, Oak Village and Elmore Middle Schools all failed to meet AYP standards.

According to the TEA, Smiley and Oak Village have failed to meet AYP every year since reports were taken in 2004. Forest Brook High and Kirby have missed the AYP for the past three years. This is the second year in a row for Elmore to not meet AYP standards. In 2003 the TEA did not report whether campuses met or did not meet AYP standards. However that year they did day that Smiley and Forest Brook “needs improvement.” In 2004 Keahey Intermediate Schoolalso missed the AYP.
Schools that continue to miss the AYP are subject to sanctions including closure.
Nowhere to go
If a school fails to meet AYP standards for two or more years it must provide opportunities for students to transfer to another school if the parents so desire.
This could be tricky for Forest Brook with every high school and middle school failing to meet AYP. Transferring out of district is also problematic.
While districts can tranfer students to another school district there is no requirement that other districts take the students.
Houston ISD had not said whther it would be willing to take North Forest students. However before taking new students in they have to be prepared to transfer district students from the 23 campuses of their own that failed to meet AYP standards.
Citing space issues Galena Park, Aldine and Humble ISDs (the closest districts to North Forest) said that they do not accept out of district transfers. Mike Keeney, Aldine ISD spokesman, said the only exception is if an out of district student attended Aldine two years ago then they may reapply. Sheldon ISD said they only accept out of district students if a parent of the student is a Sheldon ISD employee.