Most schools fail federal

KIMBERLY BELLAMY
Staff reporter

July 23, 2008 10:31 am

— Due to recent changes in proficiency target goals for Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) a majority of Edgecombe County Public Schools (ECPS) didn't meet the new requirements.
The preliminary results released Monday show that only two out of 14 schools met the goals set by AYP.
AYP is a testing scale used under the federal No Child Left Behind Act to measure what level students are testing at in grades three through eight and at the high school level.
The type of test that measure AYP are end-of-grade test for grades three through eight and end-of-course test for high school.
The AYP scores are determined by the testing proficiency of the schools as a whole and nine other distinct groups. The different groups are white, black, Hispanic, Native American, Asian, multiracial, economically disadvantaged students, limited English proficient students or students with disabilities.
A student can fall into more than one of these categories and lower the AYP standing of the school.
The makeup of the groups that a school has depends on if there are 40 or more children that belong to that category.
The high school figures for reading and math are complete making Edgecombe Early College the only school to completely meet the AYP target.
The preliminary reading scores for grades three through eight aren't complete but the math results indicate that Phillips Middle School was the only other school to meet the target for mathematics.
Director of Federal Programs for ECPS Barbara Hardison said that the high school AYP figures are complete because the English I standards were already revised earlier in the year.
Although the results reflect that 85.7 percent of ECPS are under the targets, all schools except SouthWest Edgecombe High and North Edgecombe High would have met the previous AYP standards.
“Many of our other schools were very close to meeting their targets and in fact eight schools achieved 70 percent or more of the target goals,” said Superintendent Craig Witherspoon.
The new proficiency standards were reset this month and increased from 65.8 to 77.2 for grades three through eight and 70.8 to 80.5 for high school.
The proficiency targets are scheduled to increase every three years with the maximum target goal of 100 set for the 2013-14 school year.
"One of the advantages at that point is that all the states will be at the same level," Hardison said.
Some of the states have experienced smaller increases in the AYP targets.
Title I schools that don't meet the target goals in the same subject for two or more years must offer parents the option of transferring their children to another public school, according to the state Department of Public Instruction Web site.
All of the elementary schools in Edgecombe County and Phillips Middle School receive Title I funding.
If a Title I school fails to meet the requirements for three or more years in the same subject, supplemental educational services such as tutoring will then be offered.
The tutoring will be offered free to students at Title I schools who are economically disadvantaged.
"The tutoring is offered by outside vendors on a state approved list," Hardison said.
Two of ECPS are in the school improvement stage and face these consequences.
"Princeville Montessori School will go into school improvement," Hardison said.
ECPS is waiting for confirmation from the U.S. Department of Education to shift from the school transfer choice to supplemental educational services.
Hardison said that ECPS should receive word about the supplemental educational service by early August.
Despite Phillips meeting the math AYP standards this year, the school will remain in school improvement.
"It takes two years to go into school improvement and two years to go out," Hardison said.
The schools that don't receive Title I money aren't in danger of going into school improvement.
Hardison said that when those schools don't meet AYP, they must revise their school improvement plan and get it approved by local committees.
ECPS is launching professional development plans to prevent the schools from not meeting the targets in the upcoming years.
"Staff development is one thing we're going to concentrate on," Hardison said.
"Sharing of teaching strategies across professional learning communities," is one of the ways Hardison said they will attempt to improve AYP scores.
"We will continue to work very hard to help our students meet the standards," said ECPS spokeswoman Diane LeFiles.
“We will continue our efforts to guide students toward higher levels of acheivement and hope that our parents and community members will continue to support this important work,” Witherspoon said.
The preliminary AYP reading scores will be released around October and the composite scores of the combined math and reading scores will follow.
Anyone interested in knowing more about where ECPS stands in meeting the federal standards should visit the DPI Web site at www.ncpublicschools.org/nclbl.
"It is a very complicated process and it's often difficult to understand. I would encourage people who want more information to go to the DPI Web site," LeFiles said.
"There are many different explanations and a variety of information there including charts and graphs that make it helpful."