Teachers at Monroe Elementary in West Valley City cringed a year ago when they found out their school fell short on four federal standards for students' academic achievement.

So when "adequate yearly progress" (AYP) reports came out last week showing Monroe went 40 for 40, a sense of elation permeated the hallways and classrooms. Expensive tutoring, focused instruction and deep analysis of each child's academic soft spots all paid off.

"Tenacious," Principal Launa Lee Harvey says. "We were really tenacious. We've become so focused because we know we need to make it."

Other schools are toeing the same line, and many educators now acknowledge, perhaps begrudgingly, that student achievement is improving under the much-maligned law.

"Do we not celebrate improvements on AYP just because we hate the law?" Utah Education Association President Pat Rusk asks. "No. Anytime there's success, we ought to be celebrating."

No Child Left Behind's accountability standards haven't quite hammered Utah schools as state education leaders and lawmakers predicted.

An estimated 180 schools fell short of the law's benchmarks - a marked improvement over last year's 240 schools, and well short of the 355 that state education officials anticipated.

So why are state policy-makers considering abandoning the policy? Isn't it at least partly responsible for the outcomes that President Bush and Congress envisioned: boosted achievement among all ethnic groups, English learners, disadvantaged students and students with disabilities?

Republican Rep. Margaret Dayton of Orem plans to sponsor 2005 legislation that challenges No Child Left Behind - and possibly Utah's participation in it. She and educators resent what they see as federal intrusion, inadequate funding and unrealistic expectations.

It's still unclear, however, if next year's measure will be as rebellious as the one she offered during the 2004 session, which proposed opting out of the law and forfeiting up to $107 million in federal education funding.

Dayton remains mum about her ideas for the 2005 general session - at least until a news conference scheduled for Wednesday with Utah's congressional delegation.

Meanwhile, state schools Superintendent Patti Harrington and a committee of educators have been working on an accountability system they hope will satisfy, if not replace, No Child Left Behind.

The federal law requires schools to make adequate yearly progress toward the 2014 goal of 100 percent proficiency in language arts and math.

Schools that collect federal Title I money for large populations of disadvantaged students face sanctions if they miss AYP goals for two or more consecutive years. Penalties include paying transportation costs for students who want to transfer to schools that made AYP. Non-Title I schools face public scrutiny, but no sanctions.

This year, more than 50 Title I schools avoided penalties by improving student performance.

"We're delighted to see the growth, and we want to make sure we continue it," Harrington says. "At some point, when you lay down the rules, everyone pays attention to it. There's nothing wrong with that."

Even so, she will present next month to the state Board of Education the final draft of a homegrown accountability proposal - called the Utah Performance Assessment System for Students (U-PASS).

U-PASS will share many of the same school-quality measures as No Child Left Behind, including standardized test-pass rates in language arts and math for all demographic groups; and attendance, graduation and test-participation rates. In addition, it will include pass rates for state science tests, English-learners' progress in acquiring the language, and other measures.

Schools will use those measures to track students over time and to quantify school quality.

"We prefer the U-PASS approach, which honors growth versus an accountability system in which 100 percent of kids meet achievement goals on a timetable determined by the federal government," Harrington says.

Meanwhile, federal officials caution Utah and other states to think twice before abandoning No Child Left Behind.

"We're only two years into this law. As with anything, there will be growing pains, and there's always a learning curve," says Susan Aspey, a U.S. Department of Education spokesperson. "That said, we do see the achievement gap closing in a lot of places. That's what it's all about."

Whether educators and policy-makers like it or not, Aspey is right.

At Edison Elementary, an at-risk school in Salt Lake City, language-arts and math achievement improved for almost all student groups.

Teachers there always worked hard, but No Child Left Behind and the threat of sanctions forced them to analyze each student's performance and to fill gaps as needed, says Principal Mary Margaret Williams.

"Our expectations need to be higher. Students can succeed," she says. "I was not an advocate of No Child Left Behind, but I can see good things out of it as long as we have the resources."

Says first-grade teacher Linda Emerson: "Making AYP is sort of a payoff. It's nice to get the recognition, but the real payoff is when our students are reading."

They're getting there.

Take, for example, Monroe Elementary, in the Granite District. This West Valley City school also posted huge gains for all student groups in 2004:

l Two out of three of Latino students passed language-arts tests, compared to half of Latinos in 2003.

l Three out of four low-income students passed language-arts tests, compared to half of the population the year before.

l 71 percent of English learners passed the language-arts tests, compared to 57 percent in 2003.

And all three groups showed similar growth on math tests.

Monroe Principal Launa Harvey, who said it took a lot of extra effort and extra resources, streamlined the reading curriculum and emphasized analysis of each student's performance data. With the help of a $100,000 federal grant, she launched an after-school tutoring program in which teachers stayed an extra hour to help every student who needed it.

In addition, business partners Costco and Intermountain Health Care sent employees over to offer additional one-on-one tutoring.

It all added up to filling those 40 out of 40 "boxes."

"The real keys were the tutoring, and a focused, dedicated staff," Harvey says. "I saw some teachers working through their lunch hours, working in the morning and then coming to tutor after school."

She worries, though, about what happens to the tutoring program and the boost it gives students when the grant money goes away after this year.

Harvey says she can live with the law as long as she has the resources to meet its demands and federal officials amend performance expectations of students with disabilities.

For now, Harvey, Williams, Emerson and other educators will revel in their triumph.

But not for long.

"It's frustrating and daunting to look at what we're trying to accomplish, but it's validating to know we made it," Emerson says. "Now we're looking ahead to next year."

rlynn@sltrib.com

* Click here to see detailed results from Utah's public schools.