The St. Clair County School System as a whole did not make Adequate Yearly Progress for 2011-2012.
The six schools not making AYP include Odenville Elementary School, Odenville Intermediate School, Odenville Middle School, St. Clair County High School, Moody Middle School and Moody High School.
Superintendent Jenny Seals said the faculty and students at Odenville Intermediate School and Odenville Elementary School worked extremely hard, but the special education subgroup for OIS just did not make the gains needed to make AYP set by No Child Left Behind.
“NCLB expects students with an Individual Education Plan to take one test, Alabama Reading and Math Test, and score proficiency like all students,” Seals said. “The district is in the process of setting a plan of action and reduce subgroup. We were very encouraged by the preliminary scores that came to us in late June, because we saw a substantial increase in students scoring III’s and IV’s. All AYP criteria will be changed for next year, and new guidelines for growth will be put in place. We believe this will be a more accurate way of reporting student achievement since there are plans for using a variety of assessments instead of just one.”
Odenville Intermediate School Principal Constance Seymour said they have a large population of students who qualify as special education students.
“The annual measurable objectives for these and all students were high,” Seymour said. “Our subgroup of special education students worked very hard, but found the state test very rigorous and challenging. I stand by our school community, teachers and students knowing we all worked very hard throughout the 2011-12 school year.”
Moody High School Principal Cheryl Kuyk said her school made incredible progress.
“We didn’t quite make AYP, but we have a plan in place to not only remediate the students that need to pass the grad exam, but also raise the bar and increase the levels of education for all students,” Kuyk said.
SCCHS Principal Brian Terry said it is frustrating, because you work so hard and focus on it.
“You think you are going in the right direction to improve the scores,” Terry said. “The marks are so high to hit. We have improved and improved and improved. We did not miss it by much at all. We got the summer results back, and we had 10 or 12 kids who missed it in the spring, and they came back three months later, and passed it in the summer. Had those kids passed it the first time, we would have made it easily. I was very encouraged with my seniors-to-be.”
Terry also said the state is changing.
“There are some significant changes the state is making,” Terry said. “In two years the grad exam goes away. The state has determined there is a better method to evaluate kids.
“I hate that the school system as a whole did not make AYP.”
OES Principal Christa Urban said the Odenville Elementary School administration, community, faculty, staff and students will have one vision, and one victory as they continue to work closely toward achieving academic excellence with their feeder school, Odenville Intermediate School.
Moody Middle School Principal Debra Allred said quoting State Superintendent Tommy Bice — “We know it is a broken system.”
“We had one subgroup with less than 80 students that placed us in school improvement,” Allred said. “Overall, our students scored at or above the average students throughout the state. We have outstanding teachers and students at MMS. The teachers are working diligently to make sure our students are achieving.”
OMS Principal Debra Carroll was unavailable for comment.
