The Alabama Department of Education announced Monday that 83 percent of Alabama schools made Adequate Yearly Progress while increasing academic goals.
This year, the fifth year of AYP implementation, shows that most Alabama schools continue to increase student performance and move toward reaching the ultimate goal of 100 percent student proficiency as identified by the federal No Child Left Behind law.
Alabama evaluated 1,367 public schools for 2008-09 AYP status (based on 2007-08 data). Overall, 1,140 of Alabama’s 1,367 schools made AYP.
The AYP status of schools and school systems is based on achievement on assessments of the state’s academic content standards, participation rates on these assessments, and meeting the Additional Academic Indicators based on attendance rates for elementary and middle schools and graduation rates for high schools.
AYP designations for Alabama schools and school systems include student achievement and participation rates for reading and mathematics on the Alabama Reading and Mathematics Test, grades 3-8; the Alabama High School Graduation Exam, grade 11; and the Alabama Alternate Assessment, grades 3-8 and 11.
If a school does not make AYP for two consecutive years in the same component (reading, mathematics or AAI), the school enters School Improvement status. Those schools will receive specific training and technical assistance through the state Support Team, which will help schools analyze their assessment data and develop a Continuous Improvement Plan.
The state also experienced an 18 percent reduction in the number of high poverty Title I schools identified as needing “school improvement.” Title I schools are schools that receive Title I federal funding, the largest single federal funding source for education. Of the 137 total schools identified for School Improvement statewide in 2008, 64 are non-Title I schools.
Of the 227 Alabama schools that did not achieve 100 percent of their individual goals, 134 made 90-99.99 percent, 54 made 80-89.99 percent, 17 made 70-79.99 percent, 12 made 60-69.99 percent, and only 10 schools statewide achieved less than 60 percent.
State Superintendent of Education Joe Morton said that approximately 11 percent of schools statewide (or 150 schools) that did not make AYP this year missed it by only one goal. Over 97 percent of Alabama’s schools would score an “A” or “B” under a traditional grading scale of 90-100 equals an A and 80-89 equals a B.
Following is a look at how area schools measured up.
Pell City
Officials said the Pell City School System has achieved AYP, and each individual school, with the exception of Pell City High School, has achieved AYP as well.
“There were 109 areas that they judged us on for AYP,” said Michael Barber, assistant superintendent for the School System. “We missed it by one, making 108 out of 109 goals.”
Barber said Pell City High School failed the reading portion of AYP in one category.
“The students are broken into categories, and just one category failed,” he said.
Barber said they are tracking down the category of students who failed the reading portion so they can help them succeed on next year’s tests.
“We want them to succeed next year,” he said. “We want to make 100 percent of our goals.”
Barber said 108 out of 109 is good, but is not where the School System wants to be.
“Overall, we are pleased but not satisfied,” said Cynthia Williamson, testing coordinator for the School System.
“We made AYP for the School System, but our goal is 100 percent and we are working to get there,” she said.
Williamson said plans are already in place to address the reading section failed by Pell City High School.
“Plans were in place before we received the AYP results,” she said.
Williamson said the plans were in place even though they thought they were going to get 100 percent, because of how important reading is.
“The AYP goals are constantly increasing,” she said. “Everyone continues to work on it, teachers and students both.”
Talladega City
Talladega City Schools Superintendent Dr. Joanne Horton said she was satisfied with the AYP results for the School System and was ready to make improvements in areas where it was needed.
“Overall, the district made AYP, so that’s good, but there are areas we need to work on,” Horton said. “The high school and Zora Ellis Junior High made 16 of 17 goals. Zora Ellis missed their attendance goal (95 percent) by 1 percent. The high school did not have enough improvement in the graduation rate. Both of those areas we will be working on.”
Horton said the School System also will be working with third- through fifth-graders on their math and reading scores, which did not meet AYP goals for the whole system. All of the system’s elementary schools made all of their AYP goals individually, though.
Horton said Talladega High will be moving to a new eight-period schedule this school year to give students additional time for students to prepare for the graduate exam.
Talladega County
Talladega County Schools Superintendent Dr. Suzanne Lacey said she was pleased with the system’s AYP results.
“I’m very proud to say Talladega County schools made AYP and collectively when you look at our School System, we met 62 of 63 goals under AYP. That equates to 98.4 percent of the academic goals,” Lacey said.
Lacey said the only goal not reached by the system was the high school reading AYP goal where special education reading scores improved but did not reach the goal.
Three county high schools fell short in meeting all of their AYP goals. Fayetteville High, Talladega County Central High and Winterboro High did not meet their graduation rate AYP goal.
Lacey said the graduation exam will “certainly be an area we will address this year.”
All other schools achieved all of their goals.
Sylacauga City
The Sylacauga City School System made AYP status for the 2007-2008 school year, but Nichols Lawson Middle School, sixth- through eighth-grades, was the only school in the system to reach 100 percent of its goals.
According to the System Status Summary Report, Pinecrest Elementary School, third- through fifth-grades, met 20 goals out of 21, which is 95.24 percent. The school didn’t make AYP proficiency goals in the reading category for the special education subgroup.
For Sylacauga High School, students met 14 goals out of 17, which is 82.35 percent. The school didn’t make AYP proficiency goals in the reading category for blacks and free/reduced meals student subgroups. The graduation rate for students was 82 percent, a few points away from the AYP goal of 90 percent.
“We are in full compliance with NCLB legislation,” said Superintendent Dr. Jane Cobia. “We want all of our students to learn and be successful within the constraints of NCLB legislation. We are proud of all of our personnel who came together as a team to make the difference for our students.”
Patrick Littleton, system test coordinator, said several programs were implemented to assist the needs of students who were struggling in reading and/or math.
“Those programs included a comprehensive reading intervention program in grades kindergarten through 12th,” he said. “As well as, an increased amount of support in our general education classrooms, math and/or reading tutoring at Pinecrest and Indian Valley, math remediation labs at Nichols Lawson and as one component of the remediation lab at Sylacauga High School and supplemental educational services provided through Title I at Nichols Lawson.”
— Home staff writers Elsie Hodnett, Brandon Fincher and Antrenise Cole contributed to this report
