By Devon Cormier
Staff Writer

A recently released report from the New Hampshire Department of Education shows that Hooksett and a handful of other area schools are not meeting No Child Left Behind guidelines. Schools have 30 days to appeal the list, but SAU 15 Superintendent Armand LaSelva said Hooksett will not appeal its placement on the list, and it may take a few years to get off it.

“The list was preliminary and the Department of Education gives all communities on the list the opportunity to appeal,” said LaSelva. “We do not believe we have any basis to appeal. The data we provided, they used. This wasn’t an error.”

LaSelva said grades 3, 6 and 10 are tested annually, and the state requires that a minimum of 64 percent of all students must score above the novice level. The four levels are novice, basic, proficient and advanced, in that order.

“In addition to a total of the population being in the basic to advanced category, No Child Left Behind has subgroups that must also meet the criteria,” LaSelva said. “Economically disadvantaged children who are generally those on the free or reduced lunch program, English-limited-speaking-language students and special education students are included. No Child Left Behind is expecting everybody, regardless of subgroup, to meet annual yearly progress.”

A school district that does not meet the 64 percent criteria for two years in a row in the same content area is considered failing No Child Left Behind guidelines.

LaSelva said special education students have not met the 64 percent minimum in mathematics for two years.

“In 2004, if you looked at the report for the school alone or the grade alone, it looked like we made it,” LaSelva said. “When you combine grades 3 and 4, our subgroup in special education did not make annual yearly progress and because those grades didn’t make it, the district didn’t make it. We are not going to use that as an excuse. That is reality. We need to figure out what we can do to do a better job.”

Because Hooksett did not meet state guidelines, the district will be required to develop a school improvement plan focusing on the math department. The plan needs to be submitted to the Department of Education for approval within 90 days of the publishing of the final list, which LaSelva expects to release in about a month.

“At about the end of May, we are going to have to tell the department how we are going to address the situation,” LaSelva said.

A committee being formed includes LaSelva, a Hooksett principal, a teacher, someone with strengths in data analysis and someone from the special education department. The committee will soon meet to discuss the improvement plan, LaSelva said.

“We will start to formulate models and ideas of a plan to address this,” LaSelva said. “We could be in this category for a few years because there is no testing this spring.”

LaSelva said the state is changing the way it tests students and the test they will administer. Starting this fall, the state will require testing children in grades 3 through 8 instead of just the third and sixth grades of elementary and middle school students. Because the test is different and there will be higher numbers of children in subgroups being tested, LaSelva said it may be a tough road to recovery.

“Math has been planned to come under review in Hooksett this year,” LaSelva said. “This just substantiates what we have been saying. It’s not just materials, but math content.”