Staff Writer

No year is an easy year for educators

While this year's major education events may seem less controversial than last year's Milford Central School District's Supreme Court case, an extremely late budget and standardized testing dispute, they still made marks on local districts.

In 2002, local school administrators found themselves faced with sweeping federal legislation, more testing controversy and more budget issues.

And, as in 2001, budget issues made headlines in May.

An increase in health insurance costs, frozen state aid and a less-than-generous governor's budget proposal caused tax levies to soar into the double digits while district officials struggled to keep spending down.

"This is my ninth or 10th year doing budgets, and I've never seen anything like this," Stamford Central School Superintendent Joseph Beck said two weeks before voters headed to the polls. "We're all in a real fix."

Adding to the frustration, the state released aid figures just days before the public vote, causing school officials to scramble to revise budgets with lower tax levy increases.

The lack of time probably helped cause voters to reject at least one budget — that of Charlotte Valley Central School in Davenport.

A budget with the revised figures included fewer cuts and a lower levy, Superintendent Jerome Zack said in May.

"The irony of the whole situation is the state made public the Friday before the vote the increased state aid," Zack said. "We just fell short in telling that to the public."

Local educators said although the law is well-intentioned, it may provide some major hassles along the way.

"Basically, it has implications all up and down the line," Jeanne Post, a mid-south region liaison for the state Education Department Office of School Improvement, said last month. "As we go along, we're going to find No Child Left Behind is going to change a lot of expectations."

No Child Left Behind requires states to set standards for reading and math, something New York has done for years. But it also requires schools to test students each year, and holds them accountable when scores don't improve.

"We have issues with eighth-grade testing, as other schools do," said Benjamin Berliner, superintendent of South Kortright Central School. "We're not sure what will happen now."

Meanwhile, the state Education Department released information in 2002 showing three local schools made a list of "Schools in Need of Improvement" under No Child Left Behind, based on 2001 test scores.

The Franklin, Norwich and Walton school districts were among 486 statewide cited as needing improvement.

Listed schools had to offer students a transfer to a non-failing school within the district, or, as in the case of small local districts, provide special tutoring for low-achieving students. Schools must also implement a two-year improvement plan for staff and students.

Officials at the three schools said in September they already had plans in place to improve scores.

School officials, both locally and on a state level, also showed a marked interest in middle school students.

For several years in a row, schools across the state have shown little or no increase in the number of students meeting standards on middle school tests, taken in eighth grade.

In April, New York State United Teachers released a report, called "Caught in the Middle," in response to the test scores. The report, and area educators, pointed to the stressful adolescent period as one reason for low test scores, and said the state Education Department has done little to solve the problem.

State education officials rebutted the report, saying most of the proposal had already been taken on.

Locally, many schools, including Oneonta, Cooperstown and Franklin, had decreases in the number of students meeting the state standard in English.

Math tests showed a similar decrease, and local schools increased their efforts to make improvements in both subjects.

At Oneonta Middle School, for example, teachers focused on reading and writing to increase English scores.

"It's not just about the test and the score, it's about teaching them to read and write better, above and beyond the test," Principal Martha Forgiano said at an October school board meeting. "It is our goal at the Oneonta Middle School to make sure students read and write better."

Students who entered ninth grade last fall had to pass five state-designed Regents exams to graduate in May. In the years before that, students had the option of earning a local diploma, passing one Regents and several competency tests.

Now, with those ninth-graders — they're in 10th grade this school year — inching closer to graduation, school officials said they are taking action to help struggling students get diplomas.

"By all means, there are always going to be students that the Regents exams are going to be a struggle for," Milford Central School Principal Lynda Bookhard said last spring. "We are going to great lengths to make sure all students pass."

Also this year, poor passing rates on a physics Regents exam caused a stir among school districts.

Schools across the state reported higher-than-normal failing rates or poor performance on June's physics exam, a revised version of a science test many seniors take.