Boycott could mean trouble for district

POLSON — Frustration with the Polson School District forced the hand of Mark and Lori Russell last week when they announced they would pull their children out of the Criterion Reference Testing (CRT) in the middle of March. It’s a decision that looms large for the school district, which receives funding based on its students’ participation.

“If there are enough families that do it, it will hurt the district in the scope of adequate yearly progress (AYP) determined by the office of public instruction, which complies with the No Child Left Behind Act,” said Polson Superintendent David Whitesell.

AYP is a measure of the progress made by students, the goal of which for each district receiving funds is to reach 100 percent proficiency in pupils by 2014, the 10-year milestone of the tests. The CRT measures students as advanced, proficient, near-proficient and not proficient in the areas of reading and math.

As it stands, the district has failed to reach its mark year-by-year in several buildings and is now encountered with the Russells’ stand, which could be a setback in narrowing the gap from where they are to where they should be by this time.

Furthermore, one of the requirements of schools accredited by the office of public instruction by the state of Montana is that 95 percent of each class take part in the tests.

Should the district fail to make AYP, according to Bill Appleton, director of curriculum/federal programs with the Polson School District, sanctions would be placed on the district that become increasingly harsher, could require the development of an improvement plan and progress to restructuring, for example alternative governance with state intervention.

“The school and district in improvement must use a portion of the current federal funding for these purposes,” Appleton said.

Whitesell is hoping that a positive outcome can be brought out of the situation by meeting with the parents in the very near future to discuss where the disconnect lies and hopefully come to a more productive solution that benefits all parties involved.

“Obviously we have some disenfranchised parents, upset with the instruction their children are receiving from the district,” Whitesell said. “What we intend to do is sit down with the Russells and discuss the specifics …

“I know for a fact we have great administrators and teachers in this district and we’re providing the best curriculum we can in this district, but I also know for a fact there’s always room for improvement and I’d love to sit down and have that discussion with them.”

Unfortunately, the window is quickly diminishing for such a meeting to take place. Schools are provided a roughly one-month window, which runs Feb.29-March 23, to take the test, which is administered to grades 3-8 and 10.

Polson schools typically issue the test during the latter portion of this time period.