Schools struggle with AYP standards

By Gracie Hart
Review Staff Writer

Published: September 4, 2008

Only one out of the eight schools within the Orange County School System met federal testing standards (AYP) this year, according to reports published by the Virginia Department of Education.  Locust Grove Elementary School made AYP for the third consecutive year in a row, the only school within the county to do so.
AYP stands for Adequate Yearly Progress as deemed by the No Child Left Behind Act.  The purpose of the act is to ensure that all students are served well and are on grade level in reading and math by 2013.  The act requires students to be tested in various subjects each year, with the percentage of students passing the tests increasing each year up to 100 percent in 2013. 
Students are broken into seven different subgroups for measuring AYP which are: all students, black students, Hispanic students, limited English proficient students, students identified as disadvantaged, students with disabilities and white students.  Schools and school divisions are then held accountable for each subgroup’s participation and performance in reading and math, plus in one other academic factor. 
“The annual measurable objective goes up each year,” said Jim Yurasits, Orange County School’s Director of Testing.  “The seven subgroups each have an English participation and performance objective and a math participation and performance objective plus one other academic indicator, like attendance.”
For subgroups to pass the objectives this year, they needed to have a 77 percent pass rate in English and a 75 percent pass rate in math.  These rates increase each year.  Next year, they will be 81 percent for English and 79 percent for math.
“All 29 objectives must be passed in order to make AYP,” said Yurasits.  “If you miss one subgroup, you don’t make AYP.”
Orange County Schools passed 21 out of 29 objectives this year, with five out of the eight failed objectives in math. 
“The good news is that we have shown growth in every category except one,” said superintendent Dr. William Crawford.  “We have consistently grown in areas over years.”
The one category where growth was not shown was in mathematics performance by level.  There was a -3.91 percent average growth in the category.
The math objectives have been a problem in the past, with the scores showing improvement this year with a total average growth percentage of 0.47 over all of the subgroups.  A math specialist was employed this year in order to assist teachers with math curriculums and classroom instruction. 
There was a greater average growth in English objectives with a 3.09 percent increase in scores over the subgroups.  Last year, the schools continued with the reading initiative to address the gaps in English performance.
The Orange County Schools are one of 78 school divisions that did not make AYP in Virginia.  There are 132 divisions within the state. 
“All schools have to make AYP for the division to make it,” said Crawford.  “If one school doesn’t make it, the whole system doesn’t make it.  It’s an all-or-nothing game.”
According to Crawford, the county is committed to improving AYP scores and academic progress.  Each school principal presented a plan to the School Board Tuesday for improvement based on the AYP results.  Then, a comprehensive plan will be presented to the state next month.
“We are really concerned about academically how we did and how we can improve,” said Crawford.  “Unfortunately AYP doesn’t speak to the improvement or progress that we’ve already made.”
AYP results for both the county as a whole and each individual schools can be found on the Virginia Department of Education’s website at http://www.doe.virginia.gov/VDOE/src/index.shtml.  Accreditation results, which are based on the same tests as the AYP results, will be released later this month.