Failing schools have 1 more chance

INDIANAPOLIS -- Indiana's statewide testing that begins Monday could be the last chance for some schools to prove to the federal government they have improved several years of low scores.\nTen Indiana schools must significantly improve their Indiana Statewide Testing for Educational Progress-Plus scores. Otherwise, the federal government might force them to reopen as charter schools, replace principals and teachers or surrender to state or private management, The Indianapolis Star reported Sunday.\nFailure means the schools will not have met No Child Left Behind federal standards.\nSchool administrators feel pressure to save their schools' reputations as well as their own. "We do the best that we can every day," said LeeAnn Wentz, who teaches students most likely to fail. "And we pray."\nState and federal accountability laws have made standardized test scores in Indiana and every other state a key gauge of school success.\nThis year, the pool of ISTEP-takers will almost double to 714,000 as the test expands to four more grades.\n"It's the most stressful time of the school year, not only for students, but for the staff," said Danny Tanoos, a state Board of Education member. "And then that stress reappears when you're waiting for the results."\nThe stakes are high for 77 Indiana schools that have received millions of Title I dollars to try to boost the scores of poor and minority children, but still have failed in the eyes of the federal government.\nTest scores, attendance rates and graduation rates figure into the "school improvement" list as part of the No Child Left Behind Act, the sweeping education reform law.\nUnder the law, penalties stiffen the longer a school stays on the list.\nAt Coleman Middle School in Indianapolis, 17 percent of sixth- and eighth-graders passed the ISTEP five years ago, when Principal Michael Chisley was told to pull the school out of its academic slump.\nLast year, almost one-third of the school's 400 students passed, an improvement, but still below what the government expects.\nChisley said everyone from "custodians on up" wants to see the school succeed.\n"I'll be honest," he said. "In five years that I've been here, this is the most focused I feel this school has been"