Nearly Half of Montana Students in Underperforming Schools

On the surface, Montana's Adequate Yearly progress report had some good things to say about the state's public education system.

Of the 820 schools studied, nearly seventy five percent met the minimum standards while only 212 failed to do so. Republican candidate for State Superintendent Sandy Welch, says it's important to look not only at the number of successful schools, but also at the number of children attending underachieving schools.

"As you start digging into the data, which I think is important to do," says Welch "it doesn't take very long before you see that only half of the students in Montana attend a school that is making adequate yearly progress and the other half of the students attend a school that is not making adequate yearly progress."

Sandy Welch Comments on Adequate Yearly Progress Report and offers suggestions for reform:

49.8 percent of all Montana students attend one of those 212 schools which failed to meet the yearly progress goals. Those school are required to create a corrective action plan.