Horry County Schools did not meet their educational goals last year under the federal No Child Left Behind Act. But then, the State Education Department says no other school district in the state did either.
Horry County came close, missing only 3 of its 37 objectives for the year. They didn't reach their target, but school officials say, according to other measures, the district is still making good progress.
All students in South Carolina are divided into subgroups with different goals. For example, there are low income students in English Arts and Hispanic students in math.
Ocean Bay Middle School has 27 subgroups and reached its goals for 25 of them. Though it's not good enough for a passing grade, Principal Connie Huddle says, the school is headed in the right direction. "We have made tremendous progress towards that with our subgroups and with our individual students as well as our entire student body in district and state."
No middle or high schools in Horry County reached all their no child left behind goals this year, but then, only a few in the whole state did. Huddle says, it's harder for students here. "In comparison to other states, the level that a student would need to achieve to meet standard is higher in South Carolina than a majority of our states."
Horry County Superintendent Cindy Elsberry says the federal government keeps changing the goal line for what constitutes adequate yearly progress. She says the MAP score - or Measure of Academic Progress - is a better guide to see how students are doing. "We have some real good signs, positive signs in literacy and that's been our focus."
Elsberry says it doesn't seem fair that schools can clearly be getting better, when the no child left behind goals seem to show that they're not. "When we know our students are making progress, it's obvious, and then we miss one goal. Maybe a group of disabled students may not make their benchmark in math and then the whole world thinks that that's a failing school."
Under the no child left behind act, all schools in the country are supposed to reach 100 percent of their goals by the year 2014.
Elsberry says that's a noble goal, but it's probably unrealistic.
This is the fourth consecutive year that no school district in the state met every goal under the No Child Left Behind Act.
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