The frustration was palpable on Jan. 15 as Ignacio school board members met with Colorado Department of Education (CDE) representative Peter Sherman about the district's history of low scores on the annual state accountability tests.

Sherman is executive director of CDE's school and district performance unit. He works with districts rated as needing turn-around. Districts and individual schools are rated based on results of the accountability tests given in March.

As of July 1, the Ignacio district and the elementary school will enter year five of trying to escape a "priority improvement" rating.

Board president Toby Roderick worried, "We are headed into year five, and by statute year five is the end of the road even though we've done everything we were asked to do, and we're still not seeing the turn-around in the one snapshot everybody cares about."

March test results come out in August, Sherman said. State Board of Education ratings for districts come out in November and for individual schools in December. Ignacio appealed the continued low rating and was denied.

By law, if the district or an individual school is still in priority improvement status after five years, the state board is required to take action based on recommendations from the state education commissioner and a state review panel, Sherman said. Thirty schools around the state will enter year five, he said.

"The statute outlines a couple recommendations - generally to say the district or school should change its management. That could mean getting another entity to come operate the schools," he advised. "Or it could be changing or adding to leadership. It's not particularly defined."

Charter schools also are an option, he said.

Roderick protested, "They are held to a lower standard. They don't even have to have certified teachers, and they can pick their students."

They are held to the same outcomes, Sherman responded.

Another issue is that as Ignacio heads into its year five, the coming state assessment test will change from TCAP to the national PARCC (Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Career) test, and data probably won't be released until December or January instead of August.

"It was decided they won't stop the accountability clock" because of this, Sherman said.

Roderick commented, "It seems like every time we change (tests), we have some loss" in scores. "It just seems insanely scary. I fear what that's going to show. ... Telling you there's no growth means we'll be held to one single data point. ... This is something I've been looking at for a long time. I know what's going to happen. I'm scared."

Ignacio Superintendent Rocco Fuschetto agreed.

Board member Troy Webb worried that students will take the PARCC test online instead of on paper as they are used to, and they will face different test expectations. Some of these kids haven't had the life experiences to infer what the answers should be on a computer, and those kids should get paper and pencil tests, he said.

"Is that a valid assessment? We should go for mastery," Webb said.

State legislators are already looking at this in the new session, Sherman said. "By the end of this session, our assessment system will probably be different."

Webb said the PARCC test is driven by the Common Core reading and math standards that have become very controversial. "It makes me wonder if the political agenda isn't to point the fingers at public schools," he said. "We have to test. I believe in the Common Core, but we're just shotgunning stuff."

Sherman advised that the state board doesn't have the power to enforce recommendations for districts that run past the five year deadline. For Ignacio, that's June 30, 2016.

"I'd hope the state board would work with you on what seems like the right solution," Sherman said. "You've been doing a lot of work over the last four years. ... What happens after June 30, 2016? Life goes on."

Webb said, "You do good things and you still get slapped. What's happening as a consequence is we are losing people. They're burning out doing all this work on accountability. All the paperwork."

Sherman toured district schools on Jan. 15 and met with teachers and principals. He said he previously was principal at a turn-around school in Denver.

"As the accountability clock moved along, we wanted to get more in depth with schools and districts," he said. They look at school climate and culture, instruction and assessment, staff talent, and school operations.

The new elementary and middle schools "seem to be designed around kids learning," he said. "My opinion is there's a lot of great instruction and good learning, kids really focussed, a lot of pride in the schools and the community. It's great to see. ... Culture and climate seems really positive. Kids were respectful and engaged. The academics seemed solid. ... The high school principal and assistant principal clearly know their students well."

Sherman continued, "One of your challenges is being able to tell that story as you engage with the state."

Sherman said he didn't get to watch much actual instruction, but he was impressed with small class sizes. "Clearly your buildings are wonderful. The principals say time is one of the biggest challenges, for instruction, to develop staff," he said.

In November, District Curriculum Director Kathy Pokorney lamented all the time students spend in testing or preparing for tests, versus actual instruction. Some of those are tests the district does through the year to identify where individual students need extra help, where they are doing well, and how their understanding has changed since the previous test.

She told the Times, "Even though we've made a lot of really positive changes and are working hard, it's not reflected in our (TCAP) test scores. We definitely show progress and growth with our STAR testing, but the state department doesn't consider that in a fashion to override state data in the grades that have that test."

Repeating that sentiment last week, Roderick said, "Our local community knows" that's not the reality. "Nobody else seems to. We present ourselves as this unique thing in the state, the country. We feel we are being held to a higher standard because of that."

Sherman said, "We know state tests are snapshots. It's valuable in a limited way for a limited time, especially since the data comes out four or five months after the test. It's not that valid as information. We all know you need other kinds of data. ... We have to balance how much time we spend on testing versus teaching."