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ASD students making strong academic gains

August 9, 2007

Contact: Communications Department
Phone: 907-742-4153
Web: www.asdk12.org

ASD students making strong academic gains
Results based on “Adequate Yearly Progress” federal standards

Academic achievement among students continues to improve, according to results released today by the Anchorage School District. The report shows marked improvements in language arts and math during the 2006-07 school year and significant gains since the district began calculating Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) in 2003.

In order to make AYP as defined by the federal No Child Left Behind law, each school must meet 31 specific targets. ASD schools met 98 percent of the targets for the 2006-07 school year.

“That is an ‘A’ in any teacher’s grade book. All indicators show we’re not picking and choosing statistics to highlight. The overall results really are positive,” said Superintendent Carol Comeau. “Any way you look at it, we’ve made good short and long term changes for the better. That’s a testament to the hard work of our students, teachers and support staff.” The preliminary data shows the percentage of students in grade 3 through grade 10 who were grade-level proficient in language arts climbed to 82.3 percent in 2007, from 80.7 percent the previous year. Math proficiency increased to 76.3 percent, from 71.3 percent.

Language Arts

Year. . . . .Student Proficiency
2006. . . . .80.7%
2007. . . . .82.3%

Math

Year. . . . .Student Proficiency
2006. . . . .71.3%
2007. . . . .76.3%

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 AYP. The majority of ASD schools continue to make AYP. Fifty-eight of ASD’s 94 schools, nearly 62 percent, made AYP this year. In 2003, the district’s first year of AYP calculations, 37 of 92 schools made it (approximately 40 percent). This year, ASD schools met 192 more AYP targets than in 2003.

AYP Targets

Year. . . . .Targets Made. . . . .Targets Missed
2003. . . . .2,508 - 90.87%. . . . .252 – 9.13%
2007. . . . .2,854 – 97.94%. . . . .60 – 2.06%

“We are working with schools to make improvements, regardless of whether they made AYP. The number of performance targets missed rapidly declined since last year. In fact, 24 of our schools missed making AYP by just one target,” said Comeau.

The district continues to graduate a higher percentage of high school students. The 2006-07 graduation rate is 64.9 percent, up from 63.9 percent the previous year.

Academic gains for English language learners

Comeau is also pleased with the strong gains made by students with limited English proficiency. Student test results show significant increases in language arts and math scores, with a 17.4 and 21.7 percent growth respectively in three years. In 2006-07, English language learners made AYP in all performance categories at every ASD school.

“The diversity of our community is growing exponentially. Anchorage is a truly international city and fast becoming a draw for immigrants and people who want to start over. Our students speak more than 90 languages. It’s our goal to make sure that whatever level of English a student is able to speak when he or she arrives in Anchorage, that student will graduate from the ASD with a quality education,” said Comeau.

Consequences for schools that miss AYP

Schools that do not make AYP face varying degrees of consequences. Non-Title I schools that miss making AYP must create school improvement plans detailing goals and action plans for increasing student proficiency. Title I schools that miss AYP for more than one year

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