Lowcountry schools fall short of federal standards BEAUFORT/JASPER COUNTIES: Testing inconsistencies contribute to results, educators say. Our schools The following ratings show how many categories each county and its high schools were found to be adequate in: Beaufort County: Met 13 of 20 objectives Beaufort High School: Met 3 of 14 objectives Hilton Head High School: Met 5 of 19 objectives Battery Creek: Met 4 of 13 objectives Jasper County: Met 9 of 20 objectives Jasper County High: Met 0 of 13 objectives Beaufort and Jasper county school districts did not meet the Adequate Yearly Progress standards of the federal No Child Left Behind Act, but neither did any of the other 83 districts in South Carolina. Of the 197 high schools in the state, only nine met the federal standards. The No Child Left Behind Act, a new law that evaluates public school performance, calls for all students to score "proficient" on standardized tests by 2014. Certain groups of students or subcategories are tracked to ensure they are making adequate yearly progress on those standards. This year's low ratings were not surprising to local school administrators. "We didn't anticipate making it because our standards are so high," said Edna Crews, Beaufort County's deputy superintendent for curriculum and instruction. This year's test was a field exam, where multiple versions of the exam were issued across the state and not every student took the same version, she said. Because there was a new exam, South Carolina asked the U.S. Department of Education for a one-year delay on high school AYP ratings in order to base them on the new High School Assessment Program results from students who knew they would have to pass to graduate, Crews said. However, the federal agency turned down the state's request. Educators have called meeting AYP standards daunting. Each state sets its own standards and goals, and specific groups or subcategories are required by NCLB to meet those goals. Should one of those subcategories fail, the district or school is rated as not meeting adequate yearly progress. Schools can have as many as 29 subcategories and districts can have as many as 37 subcategories. Beaufort County met 13 of its 20 objectives and Jasper County met nine of its 20 objectives. "Do these results mean our schools are inadequate or failing? Absolutely not," Beaufort County Schools Superintendent Herman Gaither said in a press release. "Do we have more work to do and room to improve? I'll be among the first to say yes." Many educators have hope and say there are other things on which to judge a school's success. Rodney Jenkins, principal at Battery Creek High School, pointed to personal achievements within recent graduating classes. In the past two years, of the 480 graduating students from his school, 10 percent of them have been first-time graduates in their families, Jenkins said. "School systems were designed to reflect the community's needs, but AYP does not allow us to do that," Jenkins said. "It's pure of heart, but foul of deed. There's no commonality in the testing, even within the district." Hilton Head High and Battery Creek High were honored last week for excellence by the S.C. Department of Education as Palmetto Gold schools. Jenkins' school received an "average" rating in the 2003 State Report Card. "Clearly, there is much more to school performance and quality than is borne out by the AYP ratings," Gaither said. Reporter Erinn McGuire can be reached at 837-5255, ext. 107. Click here to return to story: http://www.lowcountrynow.com/stories/121803/LOCayp.shtml