Richmond County Schools - AYP - Three schools make preliminary AYP

Richmond County Schools - AYP - Three schools make preliminary AYP
Preliminary results have the number of schools making Adequate Yearly Progress fell for the second straight year in 2010-11 due to ramped-up standards from federal evaluators.

Three schools - Richmond Early College High, Cordova School and East Rockingham Elementary - met each of their growth targets across student populations despite the more rigorous standards when the numbers were released Thursday. This is down from the five schools who met their proficiency targets in 2009-10, and more than half of the district’s schools - 11 - in 2008-09.

Last week, school system officials warned the numbers would decline “despite increases in student achievement,” and Richmond County Schools Superintendent Dr. George Norris repeated this explanation this week. He explained the AYP results fail to account for individual student growth at the school and district levels.

“We are proud of the schools who met all of their AYP targets, but we must emphasize that these results alone fail to provide a complete reflection of how hard all of our students and teachers worked this year,” Norris said in a release. “Proficiency is important, but individual student growth is equally important. This year, all of our schools achieved high or expected growth, a great accomplishment for our students and teachers that the community should be proud of. I’m excited that all of our schools are moving in the right direction.”

The results are preliminary until the State Board of Education approves them. They could change at that time. The preliminary results also don’t include the AYP status of the Ninth Grade Academy, which will be determined at a later date.

The county schools results were roughly in line with neighboring public school systems.

Anson County saw only two of its school make AYP, while Montgomery and Moore counties tied Richmond at three. Scotland County led the region with five of its 19 schools achieving the status.

An RCS release explained AYP is a performance measure determined under the federal No Child Left Behind legislation by a number of factors including proficiency on standardized tests, four-year graduation rates and participation rates on tests.

In order to achieve AYP, all of school’s subgroups, made up of at least 40 students, must meet the target goals. Students can count in more than one subgroup, depending on their demographics. It is difficult for schools with a large number of subgroups to meet all of their AYP targets, because 100 percent of the targets must be met.

The aim of the measure is to ensure all students will be proficient at their grade level by the 2013-14 school year.

RCS Director of Testing and Accountability Steve Lear said this year’s “increase (in target rates) is even more pronounced.”

Proficiency targets in reading were increased from 43.2 to 71.6 percent this year in grades three through eight and from 38.9 to 69.3 percent in 10th grade. Math proficiency targets were stepped up from 77.2 to 88.6 percent in grades three through eight and 68.4 to 84.2 percent in 10th grade.

Parents and community members can view the full report on the Richmond County Schools District Website, www.richmond.k12.nc.us under the “What’s Happening” section of the homepage.

Read more: Richmond County Daily Journal - Three schools make preliminary AYP

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