The school made Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) toward the goals of No Child Left Behind for the first time. It's an accomplishment for any school, especially one as diverse as West, where more than half the students are from low-income families.

"We really believe all our students can learn and learn well," Parker said.

Though West has reason to celebrate, there is still much work ahead for the school, Utah and the United States as a whole when it comes to closing achievement gaps between white and minority students. Utah made mixed progress in narrowing gaps between white and minority students who made AYP this year.

No Child Left Behind mandates that all students be proficient in math and reading by 2014. Each year schools must make a certain amount of progress toward that goal to make AYP.

But some groups of students don't typically perform as well as others, leading to the so-called achievement gap.

For example, 85 percent of white Utah students made AYP toward federal goals last school year in math, but only 77 percent of Latino students did, according to recently released results. Sixty-six percent of African-American students made AYP in math. Gaps were similar in language arts.

Some of the gaps narrowed this year, such as those between percentages of white students and black, American Indian and Pacific Islander students who made AYP. Still other gaps, such as the one between Latino and white students who made AYP, stayed the same in math this year and widened in English.

Judy Park, associate superintendent of data, assessment and accountability in the Utah Office of Education, said the gaps are a concern, but the state has not yet begun to analyze the data and she doesn't know when that might happen.

"It's not like we do a major analysis," Park said. "We're just going to really have to look at the data."

She said it's too early to say why some gaps have narrowed while others widened.

Still, the office and the Board of Education are working on a plan to help close those gaps. A board committee spent time earlier this month reviewing a draft of what they're calling the Minority Achievement Plan.

It likely will be presented to the board in October, said Brett Moulding, educational director of curriculum and instruction in the state office.

"These are recommendations on what will make a difference," Moulding said. "It outlines a number of strategies and calls for resources to be directed at closing the achievement gap."

The plan includes such recommendations as recruiting more minority teachers by having schools encourage students and paraprofessionals to get teaching credentials and then teach at the schools where they started and/or by partnering with businesses to create incentive packages.

Another recommendation is for districts to participate in programs that train faculty to be culturally sensitive to students. Also, the plan encourages schools to study test scores, programs, course placements, what students do after high school, and teachers' instructional strategies to decide what needs to be changed.

Parker said West is already working on narrowing the gaps at her school.

She said West emphasizes having a safe environment, high expectations for all students, university partnerships and tutors.

She said the school had the lowest number of suspensions in the district last year and spends a lot of time making sure students are properly placed in classes.

She said narrowing the achievement gaps at West is the next challenge.

"That's the power of the AYP report card. It says everybody has to achieve," Parker said. "We're getting there."

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* LISA SCHENCKER can be reached at lschencker@sltrib.com or 801-257-8999.