AYP (Adequate Yearly Progress) is the standard set by 2001’s No Child Left Behind Act which school districts and individual schools have to meet. Schools and school districts have their own separate AYP to meet to insure children are learning. If a district or school doesn’t make AYP for two consecutive years there are penalties placed upon the school or district.
The Dodge County School System (along with North Dodge Elementary, South Dodge Elementary, and Dodge County Middle) did make AYP this year. The No Child Left Behind Act requires 74.9% of each sub-group of first time takers of the Georgia High School Graduation Test (GHSGT) to meet or exceed a certain passing score on each of the test sections, and only 56.2% of a certain sub-group at DCHS met or exceeded the benchmark score of 515 on the math section of the GHSGT.
Dodge County Schools Superintendent Dr. Darrel May stated, “In the initial calculation, Dodge County High School did not make AYP because of the black sub-group in the area of math; this is largely due to the discrepancy between the passing score required for graduation purposes (500) and the required score for making AYP (516 or above).
High School principal, Dr. Susan Long has written an appeal to the Assessment and Accountability Division at the Georgia Department of Education. That appeal is currently under consideration. In addition, Dr. Long and her staff offered monetary incentives to those students who scored between 505 and 515 in efforts to get them to attend remediation sessions and to retake the test in efforts to increase the number of students earning a score that is acceptable for AYP purposes. At the present time, we have not received an update on whether or not the high school has met the requirements for AYP. I certainly commend Dr. Long and her staff on all the efforts they have made to ensure that the high school achieves AYP status.”
Dodge County School Board member Kim Sheffield stated, “Our goal each year should be to make AYP, and we should strive to make AYP.” DCHS principal, Dr. Susan Long declined to comment until re-test scores were returned and AYP could be re-determined. DCHS gets this first year as a grace period and can use this as a wake up call to return to AYP standards (or former Georgia School of Excellence glory) before the penalties start pouring in. The penalties implemented by the Georgia Department of Education include restructuring, performance reviews and needs assessments, contract-monitoring, and supplemental services.
For high schools, the GHSGT is one of the main factors (along with academic achievement and a “second indicator”) that determine whether the school makes AYP. The No Child Left Behind Act raises the academic goals every few years so to meet 100% proficiency by the year 2014. After two consecutive years of not making AYP, a school is placed under “needs improvement” status and penalties are added each consecutive year that a school fails to make AYP. After being placed under “needs improvement” status, a school must make AYP for two consecutive years in order to meet the No Child Left Behind requirements and all penalties are dropped.
