Times Staff Report

All but three of Lake County's 16 school corporations made adequate yearly progress under the federal No Child Left Behind law.

Those that didn't were River Forest Community School Corp., the School City of East Chicago and the School City of Hammond.

The Gary Community School Corp. made adequate progress for the first time in several years.

In many cases, schools that did not make adequate yearly progress fell short in one subgroup. Special education subgroup scores were at fault for 62 percent of schools across the state that missed adequate yearly progress in only one category.

Therein lies the flaw in this measure of public education, educators said.

Schools are graded in as many as 37 subgroups divided by race, economic status, free and reduced lunch, special education and other traits.

If one subgroup falls short, the whole school fails.

Special education students are being asked to perform at a level equal to all students, said Crown Point High School Principal Ryan Pitcock.

"We were successful in 16 of 17 categories and as a result (the high school) did not make AYP -- having failed special education in English," Pitcock said. Although the high school failed to make progress, the Crown Point district overall did make progress.

"I believe this represents a serious flaw in the law and falls short in not only presenting an accurate picture of Crown Point High School but more importantly as a way to evaluate the 2,300 student comprehensive high school."

Lake Central Director of Curriculum and Instruction Tony Arini said the district has more than 1,200 special education students with about 100 at the high school.

"Naturally, we like to make AYP and we are working very hard to improve the scores of our special education students," he said.

The bottom line is that students who have disabilities in terms of how they learn are expected to learn as much as everyone else, and are "forced to take tests at grade level even though they are not working at that grade level," Arini said.

Stephanie Billups, principal of Beveridge Elementary School in Gary, is appealing its adequate yearly progress failure.

"We made substantial gains in all academic areas, and we're just waiting on the appeal in the special education category," she said.