CHRISTINA EICHELKRAUT / PVT Nye County Superintendent Rob Roberts gives an award to Terry Owens, principal of Hafen Elementary School. The school earned an annual yearly progress ranking of "high achieving" after previously being designated as a "in need of improvement" school. Advertisement

Ninety percent of Nye County Schools met federal benchmarks set by the No Child Left Behind Act (NCYB), and several were cited for high achievement -- a monumental achievement given the fact that schools literally have 37 ways to fail and only one way to succeed.

Under NCLB, states are expected to establish performance standards for schools and measure student and school performance against those standards.

Students in individual schools are divided into a number of sub-groups, ranging from ethnicity to English language proficiency to socio-economic status.

Progress in students' proficiency is measured through standardized testing for students from third through twelfth grade.

In Nevada, students in third through eighth grade, as well as 10th-graders, take the state's Criterion Referenced Tests, or CRTs, in reading and math.

The 11th- and 12th-graders take state proficiency tests.

The state sets annual objectives for schools to achieve, in the form of percentage of students who need to pass the test, or "percentage above cut" scores.

Each year, based on the test results, a report of the entire school and their individual student sub-groups, known as annual yearly progress (AYP) scores is released.

Every subgroup of students, including special education students and those with limited English proficiency, are expected to achieve at the same rate.

Every elementary school in Nye County made AYP this year, and Manse, Hafen, and Beatty Elementary were all ranked "high achieving."

This was a step up for both Manse and Hafen Elementary schools, which had been previously designated as "needs improvement" schools.

Tonopah Middle School received a "high achieving" ranking as well, and Round Mountain Middle School earned "exemplary" status.

But there is far more to an AYP ranking than its simple one- or two-word definition, and in many cases AYP rankings can be downright misleading.

For example, Rosemary Clarke Middle School was deemed "in need of improvement," despite making significant improvement in nearly every category of student.

As Superintendent for Student Achievement Jerry Hill stated in a written press release, "Rosemary Clarke Middle School could easily be the poster child for the inequities of the No Child Left Behind law as more than 95 percent of the school's students scored far above the requirements for AYP."

In fact, the school achieved double-digit gains in almost every area and grade level, ranging from a 9 percent increase in sixth-grade students proficient in math and a 16 percent increase in English language arts proficiency for the same grade.

Seventh grade saw a 12 percent increase in students meeting AYP for math and an impressive 25 percent increase in English proficiency.

Eighth graders also saw a significant jump in both categories, with an 11 percent increase in math and a 14 percent increase in English.

But despite these gains, the school's ultimate AYP designation boiled down to one group of students that make up only 3.5 percent of the entire school's population.

Pahrump Valley High School found itself in the "needs improvement" category due to the failure of two sub-populations to make AYP, one in math and another in both math and reading.

Tonopah High School was placed on the watch list for participation due to absence on test day of, literally, a single student.

And because 18 of the 37 categories are participation-related, the absence of one student can change an entire school's ranking.

In Tonopah, for example, that one student made the percentage of students tested less than the 95 percent required by the state, so in the eyes of the law, the high school had to be put on the list.

Fortunately, schools do have a chance to appeal rankings if the state-pooled data is inaccurate or there is an unusual circumstance.

Since the results of testing come back to districts around the end of May, but the official results are not released until Aug. 2, districts have an appeal window from about mid-June to the end of July to make their case.

Hafen Elementary School, for example, was initially placed on the watch list when three Individual Educational Plan, or special education, students, were incorrectly coded.

The state allows IEP students to receive accommodations, but not modifications, while being tested.

Since the three students were coded as having received modifications while being tested on their testing forms (when in actually they had state-allowed accommodations), they were not counted towards the final AYP data pool.

After that error was corrected, the school was re-designated as "high achieving."

Round Mountain Elementary School also gained its "high achieving" ranking after an appeal was granted -- three students were absent for legitimate reasons test day.

One student of the three had transferred, but since the student was counted as being at the school at the beginning of the year, the absence counted against the school's participation scores.

Once again, an appeal resulted in the school moving from the watch list to enjoying a "high achieving" designation.

Another impressive facet about the district's overall AYP rankings is they were achieved in spite of continually rising state standards and the unique educational challenges that face Nevada.

Although NCLB is federal legislation, states individually set their PAC scores and design their own tests. That means that what makes a school or student proficient in one state doesn't hold true in a different state.

Nevada test standards are actually fourth highest in the nation, followed by South Carolina, Massachusetts and Colorado.

The high testing standards are an even greater challenge for schools to meet in a state that has a myriad of educational challenges to begin with.

For example, Nevada spent only $7,551 per pupil from 2005 to 2006, only 79 percent of the national average.

In addition, Nevada had a far higher percentage (18 percent) of students with limited English proficiency in 2004 and 2005.

The national average of such students for the same period was only 8 percent.

Only 25 percent of 3- to 4-year olds in Nevada are in preschool, compared to 45 percent nationally.

Further, the PAC scores schools need to meet in order to be deemed adequate raise incrementally. In 2006-2007, elementary and middle schools in Nevada needed 39.6 percent of their students to be proficient in reading and 43.4 percent proficient in math to meet AYP.

This year, however, the PAC scores have been increased to 51.7 percent for reading and 54.6 percent for math.

High school standards are increasing from 77.9 percent in reading and 52.3 percent in math to 82.3 percent in reading and 61.8 percent in math.

The school district implemented a number of programs to improve its AYP rankings; so many in fact, that it has hired a data instructional specialist to analyze test scores and work with principals and teachers to find out where the high scores came from.

"It's going to be hard to assess our success because we've been doing so many things that it's hard to find just one factor," Hill said.

One factor Hill believes may have contributed is the district's professional learning communities, or collaborative efforts by teachers and principals to improve student achievement.

"It has to have done something," Hill said.

One thing administrators are sure of is the district's teachers and principals are largely responsible for the drastic increase in scores.

To acknowledge their hard work, Superintendent Rob Roberts made sure the principals of each "high achieving" school received an award at the three-day administrative conference held prior to the school year beginning.

"Our staffs should be commended for their hard work and dedication towards student achievement," Roberts stated in a written press release.