Three schools cited in AYP report

Feds expect schools to make yearly progress toward perfection by 2014

Three Madison County schools have missed Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) assessments, while more student subgroups fell short of progress marks as well this year.

Results were released Friday by the Georgia Department of Education.


Both Madison County high school and middle school missed AYP again. Meanwhile, Danielsville Elementary School failed to make AYP for the first time, though that school has not fallen into the “needs improvement” category.

Schools must fail to meet AYP for two consecutive years before being put on that list. A school must meet progress standards for two straight years to be removed from that list.

Both the Madison County middle and high schools have missed AYP for a total of three straight years. School system leaders are at work implementing strategies to erase those dubious “needs improvement” tags.

“We’ve had multiple meetings this summer … There’s been a lot of restructuring done,” Madison County curriculum director Kathy Pruett said. “We’ve got professional learning set up and training set up already. We got consultants coming in to work with teachers in different areas. We’ve got good plans in place.”

Under No Child Left Behind, the federal government mandates that 100 percent of students meet standards in all areas in 2014.

That gives Madison County schools six years to become perfect.

Both the middle and high schools had problems with math again.

Madison County Middle School missed the mark in math among the black student subgroup, while the high school didn’t meet in enhanced math standards as an entire student body and in two subgroups — students with disabilities and economically disadvantaged students.

Danielsville Elementary School missed standards in math among its economically disadvantaged children.

The struggles in math were somewhat expected. State school leaders recently added more rigor to the math program in an effort to raise the bar for math standards in Georgia. The state expects those scores to increase over time as students become acclimated to the more challenging curriculum.

“Historically, you’ll take a dip the first year of implementation and that first year of testing and gradually you’ll see it work back up,” Pruett said.

But it wasn’t just math that hindered schools not making AYP this year.

Madison County High School also didn’t meet marks in English/language arts-reading for economically disadvantaged pupils and students with disabilities, nor did the middle school meet marks in English/language arts-reading among students with disabilities.

A certain percentage of students must meet a minimum score in a subject for it to be determined that a subgroup “meets standards” in that area for AYP.

But the percentage is different for each subject. For example, 74.9 percent of students must meet math standards for a student subgroup to meet AYP.

“They’re all different and they go up in staggering amounts,” Pruett said.

Another area where MCHS fell short was its graduation rate. It did not achieve a 70 percent rate, nor did it show an increase over last year to be considered “meeting standards” in graduation.

Pruett will present all AYP data to the board of education at its August meeting.

Madison County Schools superintendent Dr. Mitch McGhee said AYP isn’t the best reflection of the quality of a school system.

“But it’s what we’re living under now, so we do our best,” he said.