Only one out of six local schools that received the state’s highest academic label last summer retained the top achievement.

Thunderbolt Middle School was the only school out of the nine across the Lake Havasu Unified School District to once again receive an “excelling” label that is primarily based on students’ state exam scores.

“My first thought is to really say ‘thank you’ to our staff, students and parents for their combined efforts in working together,” said Thunderbolt Principal Paul Olson.

The five elementary schools in the district to receive the “excelling” label last year are now all “highly performing.” Havasupai Elementary School was the only school in the district to raise its academic status in one year. Last year, the school was “performing plus; this year, it was deemed “highly performing.”

The Arizona Department of Education assigns one of five academic labels to schools each year. Schools are deemed either underperforming, performing, performing plus, highly performing or excelling. The labels are part of the state’s accountability system, AZ LEARNS. Results are released to the public today.

The state’s academic labels look at the percentage of students passing Arizona’s Instrument to Measure Standards, the state’s exam required for high school graduation. The labels also look at the school improvement, graduation rates and English Language Learner proficiency.

“Our schools are still doing a very good job,” said District Superintendent Gail Malay. “Now that we know what caused this, we are working on it.”

Wes Brownfield, the district’s director of educational services, said changes in the state’s determination of “excelling” schools is what dropped five of the district’s schools.

He said prior to this year, the state deemed that 17 percent of school’s students needed to “exceed” on the AIMS exam; this year, the state increased that mark to 25 percent.

Brownfield stated if the state had kept the percentages the same, the five schools would have retained their “excelling” status.

Students also took a new math AIMS test this year, and officials said the exam was tougher. Scores from the spring 2010 test dropped statewide in math — including in the local district.

The state acknowledged in a press release that they expected to see a drop in performance because of the math test and increasing graduation rate goals for high schools.

However, Today’s News-Herald was unable to confirm if the state changed the percentage of students needing to “exceed” on the AIMS exam for the top label.

“While labels are important, what we really look at is the data behind the labels,” Malay said. “We spent quite a bit of time this summer drilling down the real specific skills we need to look at with our students.”

The news comes about three months before the district will place a question on the November ballot asking local voters to approve a secondary property tax that would give the district more funding.

In November 2009, local voters did not renew the tax, which was originally approved in 2005.

“We are doing our part as a school district, but we do need a certain level of funding,” Malay said, adding that she had to chose between purchasing high school math books and elementary reading books this past year.

Telesis Preparatory Academy’s elementary students dropped their label from “performing plus” to “performing” and the school’s high school students increased their label from “performing” to “performing plus.”

Lake Havasu Charter School maintained its “performing” label from last year.

The two schools are the only public charter schools outside of the district.

The state also released whether or not schools made “adequate yearly progress,” the federal requirement for No Child Left Behind. AYP looks at similar data as the state’s accountability system. Under AYP, schools either met or did not meet the federal criteria.

In the district, only Thunderbolt and Lake Havasu High School did not meet the criteria.

Thunderbolt Principal Paul Olson said that although the school retained its state excelling label, the federal system takes into closer consideration scores from students with learning disabilities, and English Language Learners and students who are economically disadvantaged.

“We don’t ask children who are physically handicapped at the end of every year, OK, you need to get out and run a six-minute mile,” he said.

Go to www.ade.az.gov to view the AZ LEARNS and AYP results.

You may contact the reporter at jleatherman@havasunews.com