When good schools fail: How two otherwise high-performing middle schools responded to failure to meet AYP targets for students with disabilities

Since the implementation of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) in 2001, schools in the United States have experienced increased pressure to account for the performance of all students toward proficiency in ELA and mathematics by the year 2014. Each year the stakes become higher and the performance or improvement gains needed to meet AYP become greater. Although the state of Massachusetts began educational reform in 1993 with the passage of the Massachusetts Education Reform Act (MERA) and is the only state, in a recent longitudinal study of 12 states, found to report percentages of students proficient similar to those reported by NAEP (Fuller, 2006), schools in Massachusetts are being labeled as failures due to failure to meet AYP targets for all students or particular subgroups. One study reports that by 2014, 90% of Massachusetts schools will fail to meet statutory AYP (MassPartners for Public Schools, 2005). An emerging area of failure is that of the high-performing school in which a particular subgroup has failed to meet AYP targets.;This qualitative study of two otherwise high-performing middle schools in Massachusetts is an attempt to understand the schools' capacity to respond to failure to meet AYP targets for students with disabilities. Findings from this study indicate that although teachers at the schools of study are "highly qualified" by NCLB and state standards, efforts at complying with NCLB and IDEA have been problematic. Particularly problematic is the ability of school and district staff to coordinate appropriate math instruction for students with disabilities in an inclusion setting. The findings illustrate a lack of expertise necessary to fully comply with the policies of NCLB and IDEA as well as inconsistent integration of expertise that does exist at the schools of study. Findings provide insight into the importance of leadership for inquiry and also call into question the reality of being able to provide individualization (IDEA) while being held accountable by standardized measures (NCLB).