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Academic proficiency climbed in 2006, data shows

August 3, 2006

Contact: Anchorage School District Communications Office
907-742-4151
www.asdk12.org

Preliminary academic data released today by the Anchorage School District shows that its students continued to make academic gains in language arts and math during the 2005-2006 school year.

“It is good progress and a testament to our students, our educators and our support staff,” said Superintendent Carol Comeau. “We have a vision of what we want to achieve, a plan for how to get there, and results that show we’re on the right path.”

The preliminary data shows that the percentage of students in Grade 3 through Grade 10 who were grade-level proficient in language arts climbed to 80.7 percent in 2006, from 79.3 percent the previous year. Math proficiency increased to 71.3 percent, from 71.1 percent.

Language Arts
2005: 79.3% of students were proficient
2006: 80.7% of students were proficient

Math
2005: 71.1% of students were proficient
2006: 71.3% of students were proficient

“While they’re not huge gains, they certainly are positive and an indicator that our staff and students’ hard work is paying off,” said Comeau.

Making Adequate Yearly Progress

Proficiency rates, attendance rates, test participation, and graduation rates are used each year to determine whether individual schools and the district as a whole made adequate yearly progress, a measure of achievement defined by state and federal education regulations. ASD released its preliminary 2006 AYP results today along with its proficiency rates and graduation rates. The data will be finalized in the next week, coinciding with the Alaska Department of Education and Early Development’s statewide AYP announcement scheduled for August 11.

The majority of ASD schools continue to make adequate yearly progress. Fifty-eight of ASD’s 93 schools made adequate yearly progress this year. Last year, 59 out of 90 schools made AYP.

“I want each of our schools to do better, regardless of whether they made AYP. I can see the progress in our language arts and math proficiency, and I can see that schools are generally missing fewer performance targets. In fact, 13 of our schools missed making AYP by just one target out of the 31 total targets,” said Superintendent Carol Comeau.

Achievement gap narrowing for Alaska Native and African American students

Comeau is also pleased with the across-the-board improvement made by Alaska Native students and African American students.

Alaska Native and African American students not only improved their overall proficiency in reading, writing and math, they improved in all sub-sections for each area. These subsections, known as “strands,” are specific skills tested within the main academic areas of reading, writing and math. Reading, for example, has three strands: word identification skills, ability to form a general understanding, and analysis of content. Writing has three skill strands, math has six.

“I am so proud of these students and their teachers. Other groups of students made overall increases, but these two were the only ones that increased in every single reported strand for each subject,” said Comeau.

Consequences for schools that miss AYP

Schools that do not make AYP are given varying degrees of consequences, depending on whether they receive federal Title I funding and how many years they have missed. Non-Title I schools that miss making AYP must create school improvement plans detailing goals and action plans for increasing students’ proficiency. Title I schools that miss AYP for more than one year must offer extra help to students (after-school tutoring, for example), offer parents an o

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