Good Report In Utah Schools News

This morning’s Deseret News has published an article reporting that 93% of schools in Utah earn U-PASS grades.

U-PASS stands for Utah Performance Assessment System for Students and the reported results are for 2004-2005.

Schools that passed had either 75 percent or more of their students proficient in language arts, math and science or had a substantial number of students (who were not proficient) making considerable progress toward proficiency. “These first-year results give meaning and context to the U-PASS testing system,” said State Superintendent of Public Instruction Patti Harrington. “What we especially like about U-PASS is that it gives students and teachers credit for growth in their learning.”

Under No Child Left Behind, if one group of students misses the mark on test scores or participation rates, the whole school fails to make adequate yearly progress. That’s because federal law aims to shine a bright light on areas where children might be falling behind to compel schools to address problems.
But U-PASS judgments are more holistic.
“They give you credit for growth that (NCLB reports) do not,” said Mark Peterson, spokesman for the State Office of Education. “(NCLB reports) are strictly status where as U-PASS is status and growth.”

Read more here.

This is good news for our schools which often are under criticsm and scrutiny. Our educators work hard given the large class sizes and low amount of money (relatively speaking) with which to work.