Note: a .pdf of the entire report is attached to this story.

Amidst a flurry of criticism of the report from Iowa Department of Education Director Ryan Wise the 2014-15 State Report Card on Student Achievement – federal No Child Left Behind Law – was released last week.

It showed the South Tama School District was one of 50 school districts state-wide labeled “DINA- District in Need of Assistance.”

This is the 6th year in a row since 2009-10 the South Tama District has been on the list of in need of assistance.

South Tama Schools had met participation levels for math and reading at all three levels – elementary – middle and high schools.

Ryan Wise

However, at the elementary level, in math proficiency the school was SINA (Student in Need of Assistance) -6 in math proficency and SINA-7 in reading proficency; in middle school both math and reading proficiency was SINA-7 and for high school math was SINA-6 and reading- SINA-2.

The numbers following the SINA designation “denote the number of years in improvement status” according to the report.

“We know the majority of our schools and districts are not failing,” Wise said in a Department of Education news release. “While I believe in accountability and high expectations, states and schools deserve a system that drives student learning and is based on improvement.”

Wise added, “I am optimistic that the Congressional efforts under way to overhaul No Child Left Behind will bring much-needed relief to Iowa. We need a system of accountability that sets clear parameters while allowing flexibility to meet educational goals that make sense for individual states.”

Wise expressed optimism what he termed “A long-overdue revision of the federal law” is on the horizon.

His predecessor, Brad Buck, had similar comments in reaction to the 2013-14 report which he also termed “flawed.”

Last year, then-South Tama Superintendent Kerrie Nelson pointed to “”challenging demographics” in the local schools for a primary reason the 2013-14 designation of South Tama as a district in need of assistance.

According to the Department of Education news release: No Child Left Behind requires public schools and districts to meet targets for “Adequate Yearly Progress” (AYP) for the overall student population and for demographic subgroups of students in grades 3-8 and 11. These subgroups include socio-economic status, limited English proficiency, race/ethnicity and special education.

Schools must meet all targets in every student group to meet AYP and must test 95 percent of students in each group. This means that an entire school can miss AYP based on the performance of a few students.