ABC and AYP Official Results
The State Department of Public Instruction released
its report for the ABC Accountability Program on its
2,232 public, alternative and charter schools. Piney
Creek School and Alleghany High School were listed
as having high growth. Sparta School as having met
expected growth. Piney Creek School received
additional recognition by being named “Schools
of Distinction”. Sparta School met their
expected growth goals set for them by the Department
of Public Instruction.
To
be placed in the “Schools of Distinction” category,
Piney Creek School had to have at least 80% of their
students scoring at grade level and meet Annual Yearly
Progress (AYP) set by the Federal Government with the
No Child Left Behind legislation. Sparta School
had 75.3% and Glade Creek had 74.6%, of their students
scoring at grade level.
The
ABCs of Public Education is North Carolina’s
primary school improvement program with the goals of
providing strong local school accountability, an emphasis
on mastery of basic subjects, and as much local decision
making as possible. Since 1996, when the ABCs program
became law, it has been modified and improved to better
portray school performance and to ensure that its measures
are as fair and accurate as possible. Formulas are
used to measure the academic growth and achievement
for all schools. The 2006-07 school year marked the
eleventh year of the ABCs for K-8 schools and the tenth
year for high schools.
No Child Left Behind, the federal education law requires
an additional accountability measure called Adequate
Yearly Progress (AYP). AYP, which is included in the
2007 ABCs Accountability Report, focuses on sub-groups
of students with a goal of closing achievement gaps
and increasing proficiency to 100 percent.
Alleghany
County Schools met 57 of 60 No Child Left Behind Benchamrks.
Two out of the four Alleghany County Schools made Adequate
Yearly Progress (AYP) which means they met 100% of
their performance goals for the new Federal Education
Act better known as No Child Left Behind (NCLB). Glade
Creek Elementary 13 of 13 benchmarks, Piney Creek Elementary
13 of 13 benchmarks met all their required goals. Sparta
Elementary met 19of 21 benchmarks and Alleghany High
12 of 13 benchmarks. To achieve Adequate Yearly
Progress a school and school system must meet 100%
of their benchmarks.
Under
No Child Left Behind, each school is evaluated according
to whether or not it made Adequate Yearly Progress
(AYP). The AYP provisions of No Child Left Behind are
complex. Each state sets AYP goals for all schools
to meet. In North Carolina, these goals indicate the
percentage of students performing at grade level or
better as measured by the state’s testing program.
By 2013-14, North Carolina’s goal is for 100
percent of all students to be proficient. This is a
requirement of the law. For 2006-07, in grades 3 through
8, the Annual Measurable Objectives targets
were 76.7% proficiency in reading/language
arts, and 65.8% in mathematics. For
grade 10, Annual Measurable Objectives were
recalculated during the 2004-05 school year to reflect
the inclusion of Algebra I, English I, and the Grade
10 Writing Assessment in the AYP computations. The
new starting points for Grade 10, for 2006-07 was: 35.4%
in reading/language arts, and 70.8%
in mathematics.
Adequate
Yearly Progress is a goal for the school overall, but
also for each subgroup of students in the school. For
example, if your child’s school has four subgroups
of students numbering at least 40 each, each of these
four groups must reach the Adequate Yearly Progress
goal in order for the school to be considered successful
under the federal law.
For
more information on the State's ABC/AYP report, you
may access the Department of Public Instruction web
site http://www.ncpublicschools.org/accountability,
or contact the Alleghany County School Administrative
Offices at 372-4345. |
