The three schools that did not make AYP include Moody High, Odenville Intermediate and Odenville Elementary.
On Tuesday, Schools Superintendent Jenny Seals released the following statement concerning AYP.
“The St. Clair County School System is working hard to ensure all students reach their full potential,” Seals said. “This year, we had more schools make their Adequate Yearly Progress goals than last year. We are improving each year even though the expectations from the No Child Left Behind Act continue to rise.
“Unfortunately, like many other school districts around the state, our district did not make our AYP goal this year. Our school improvement team is working to analyze the data and develop specific plans to improve areas of need. Our exceptional education population made progress this year, but did not quite make the national reading goal.
“Our county continues to exceed goals in mathematics and all other additional academic indicators. Only three schools of our seventeen schools did not make AYP. Based on test results, Moody High School and Odenville Intermediate Schools did not make AYP. Odenville Elementary did not make AYP because of its feeder status into Odenville Intermediate School.”
In Pell City, six of the eight schools achieved AYP.
Coosa Valley Elementary School, Eden Elementary School, Iola Roberts Elementary School, Duran Junior High School, Duran South and Walter M. Kennedy Elementary School all made AYP.
Williams Intermediate School and Pell City High did not achieve AYP.
“We are proud of our schools,” Assistant Superintendent Michael Barber said. “It is tough in larger schools to make AYP. And AYP doesn’t take into account progress the schools have made.”
Barber said Williams Intermediate made 20 out of 21 academic goals.
“They didn’t make math in the area of special education,” he said. “But they made over 95 percent of their goals.”
Barber said the high school achieved 15 out of 17 goals.
“The high school didn’t make the reading goals in the area of free and reduced, which includes special education,” he said.
Barber said overall, the school system achieved 113 out of 116 academic goals. The system did not achieve AYP because if any school does not make AYP the school system does not make AYP.
“Nowhere else do I know of any grading system where you can make 95 or 88 percent of goals and still fail,” Barber said.
He said both Williams Intermediate and Pell City High have shown documented gains in special education.
“We are working on improving those areas,” he said. “This is not something we take lightly. But a very good school system that does not achieve AYP can be viewed negatively by the public, even if it meets 113 out of 116 goals.”
Barber said the schools will continue to work toward meeting all 116 goals.
“Our kids have done the best they have ever done, yet we didn’t make AYP because the goal keeps going up every year,” Pell City High principal Helene Bettinger said. “The goal this year was 92 percent of juniors passing the reading portion of the graduate exam. By 2014, it will be 100 percent.”
Bettinger said the school’s improvements do not factor into whether the school achieves AYP.
“We had the best advanced placement testing scores ever, with 77 students, juniors and seniors, participating with advanced placement testing, some with multiple tests,” she said. “Our kids have received at least $5 million in scholarships every year, and 75 percent of our kids get accepted to military, vocational or college. We have a good school, we really do. I would put Pell City High School up against any other high school for what we do.”
Under the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, only two grades are given — passing and failing. Schools must meet 100 percent of their respective annual goals in all student groups to be identified as having achieved AYP. As a result, missing just one goal will prevent a school from making AYP. NCLB requires schools to meet annual goals in the academic achievement of the overall student population and by student groups, including economic background, race/ethnicity, limited English proficiency and special education.
The AYP status of Alabama schools and school systems is based on student achievement and participation rates on assessments for reading and mathematics, plus attendance rates for elementary and middle schools and graduation rates for high schools.
Alabama evaluated 1,383 public schools for the 2011-12 AYP status which is based on 2010-11 data.
More than 72 percent of Alabama public schools met 100 percent of their NCLB goals and made AYP.
More than 87 percent of Alabama public schools met more than 90 percent of their required NCLB goals.
Out of 1,383 Alabama public schools, 1,006 schools made AYP.
For 2011, 49 school systems and 377 schools did not make AYP.
Contact Gary Hanner at ghanner@thestclairtimes.com and Elsie Hodnett at ehodnett@dailyhome.com.
