Adequate Yearly Progress

[Jeremy71]

To meet Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) requirements in Texas, a school or a district is required to have:

• A passing rate on state reading/ELA exams of 53 percent or higher for all students and each student group in http://excellenceintheclassroom.com/ [Broken]s, or show a 10 percent decrease in students who failed the state tests and improvement on either the graduation rate or attendance rate
• A passing rate on state mathematics exams of 42 percent or higher for all students and each student group in http://excellenceintheclassroom.com/ [Broken]s, or a 10 percent decrease in students who failed the state tests and improvement on either the graduation rate or attendance rate;
• A graduation rate of 70 percent or higher or show improvement;
• An attendance rate of 90 percent or higher or show improvement.

While these elements of the system were stable in 2006, there was one significant change. The US Department of Education required that Texas count no more than 3 percent of students with disabilities who took alternate assessments below enrolled grade level as proficient in 2006. In 2005, as many as 5 percent of students in this category could be counted as proficient.

This federally mandated change means that some students with disabilities who took a state test below grade level in http://excellenceintheclassroom.com/ [Broken]s and passed it, must be counted as having failed the test because the percentage of students who took alternative tests exceeds the federal cap. This change alone caused 220 campuses to receive a Missed AYP evaluation.

 

[Chi Meson]

To meet Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) requirements in Texas, a school or a district is required to have:

• A passing rate on state reading/ELA exams of 53 percent or higher for all students and each student group ...
• A passing rate on state mathematics exams of 42 percent or higher for all students and each student group ...
• A graduation rate of 70 percent or higher or show improvement[in each student group...]
• An attendance rate of 90 percent or higher or show improvement [in each student group...]

Just wanted to add to this thread, that "each student group" means that every stipulation applies to all possible subgroups of students. In our relatively small district, there are 22 subgroups (each minority group, each socioeconomic group, each disability group).

This means that our district has 22 chances in EACH NCLB REQUIREMENT to be called "failing." Jeremy names only 4 of the many requirements.

Last year, two students from one subgroup simply refused to answer a single question. Those two students were 5% of the group. We "failed."

The NCLB is, at best, a convoluted attempt at reform created by too many people tossing in their individual "good ideas"; at worst, it is a bald-faced effort to dismantle public education completely and thus crack holes in the last overtly liberal establishment: teacher's unions.

I won't be one to rush to the defense of the union, but the NCLB requirements cost our school over $40,000 this past year (that's one teacher) to perform a study on the cause of that "failure" I just mentioned.

Yes, this happened, this is how it is.