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Anchorage School District schools rated on Adequate Yearly Progress

August 20, 2003

Contact: Carol Comeau
Superintendent
Phone: 907-742-4312
Fax: 907-742-4318
E-mail: comeau_carol@asdk12.org

The Anchorage School District today released school-by-school information on whether its schools made Adequate Yearly Progress as defined by the Alaska Department of Education and Early Development and the federal education act, No Child Left Behind.

AYP is a federally mandated accountability system that measures student academic performance. Schools and districts must make annual progress toward the goal of having 100 percent of students academically proficient by the end of the 2013-2014 school year. The State of Alaska, in coordination with NCLB regulations, has established the annual proficiency targets a school and district must achieve in order to be considered as making AYP.

Schools must show that their students schoolwide and in nine groups are achieving performance targets in math, language arts, and test participation. The nine groups include six ethnic groups, students who are economically disadvantaged, students with disabilities, and students who have limited proficiency in English. Schools must also achieve attendance and graduation rate goals. In all, there are 31 performance and participation targets a school must achieve in order to make AYP. It is an “all or nothing” rating; if one or more targets are not reached, the school does not make AYP.

Tests used to calculate AYP are the TerraNova CAT/6 given at grades four, five, seven and nine, the Alaska Benchmark Exams given at grades three, six and eight, and tenth-grade scores on the Alaska High School Graduation Qualifying Exam.

Of the 92 ASD schools and programs that received an AYP rating, 37 36 schools made AYP (40 39percent) while 55 56 did not (60 59 percent). Eleven ~~Twelve~~ schools did not make AYP due to one missed target. Another 12 schools missed just two targets and did not make AYP. [August 20, 2003 at 2:00p the State Department of Education and Early Development made a data correction that resulted in Rogers Park Elementary making AYP.]

“AYP is a tough standard to reach,” said Superintendent Carol Comeau. “A school can be very successful, with the vast majority of its students making tremendous academic progress, but still not make all 31 targets.”

While acknowledging the difficulty in making AYP, Comeau is committed to high standards and accountability for the Anchorage School District.

“We have a good district and good schools, but we must constantly strive to improve. AYP is one more tool for us to use to see where we need to focus our efforts. With our high quality teachers, principals and support staff, we can make progress.”

Comeau points to AYP test participation targets as a difficult area for many schools. AYP requires 95 percent or more of students schoolwide and in the nine groups to take the tests used to calculate AYP. Many schools missed participation targets because one or two students too many were absent on the testing days.

“We need to work with parents and our students to stress the importance of being in school and limiting absences, especially on testing days. Students need to be in school to learn, and they need to know how important these tests have become,” said Comeau.

There are consequences for not making AYP. After one year of not making AYP, schools must develop and implement a school improvement plan. After two years in a row of not making AYP, the consequences are more severe for Title I schools, which receive federal funds to help support low-income students.

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