The Georgia Department of Education
released an initial list of Coweta County schools which
successfully met Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) requirements
under the No Child Left Behind act in the 2007-08 school year.
10 Coweta County schools did not make AYP in the report issued
by the Georgia Department of Education on July 25. That number
will drop to four schools, however, when the state of Georgia
releases its final No Child Left Behind list in September. Of
the four schools also identified on the report’s Needs
Improvement list, one will come off the list in September due to
recalculated status, but supplemental services offered at the
school will continue this year (see below).
In the report released by the state on Friday, June 25, all
three Coweta County high schools made AYP, including East Coweta
High School, which made AYP for the second year in a row and is
therefore no longer listed on the state’s Needs Improvement
list.
All 27 Coweta County schools met the requirements for all
students within the school, but some schools ultimately did not
make AYP due to specific subgroups of students.
Initially, four of Coweta County’s 18 elementary schools and all
six of Coweta County’s middle schools did not make AYP based on
the performance of one or more subgroups of students within the
school.
Although 10 schools were announced today as initially not making
AYP, this number is projected to drop to only four schools not
making AYP on the final report. The updated No Child Left Behind
report is expected in September.
The second and final state AYP report will recalculate school
AYP status to take into account the scores of 3rd, 5th, and 8th
grade students who passed a retest of the Criterion Reference
Competency Test in reading and math. Across the state, a larger
number of elementary and middle school students statewide had to
retake a new version of the math test this year.
In Coweta County, 46 percent of 5th graders and 50 percent of
8th grade students who retook the math section in June passed.
This passage rate will raise the overall number of students in
specific subgroups who passed the test and therefore change
schools’ AYP reports. While the majority of students who passed
the retest moved from not meeting to meeting expectations, a
small number of students moved from not meeting to exceeding
expectations on the retest.
Adequate Yearly Progress status
Under the
federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) act, the annual academic
progress of schools is determined by student attendance
(elementary and middle schools) or high school graduation rate
(high schools), and student academic performance on the Math and
Reading and English/Language Arts portions of the Georgia
Criterion Reference Competency Test (CRCT) or Georgia High
School Graduation Test (GHSGT) (percentage of students who meet
or exceed standards).
Schools are judged on the performance of all
students, as well as the performance of several subgroups that
may vary from school to school (including Students with
Disabilities, economically disadvantaged students, English
Language Learners, and ethnic subgroups, as defined by the
federal NCLB law).
If all criteria are not met by the school’s
population overall, or even in a subgroup that makes up a small
percentage of the school’s population, then the school is listed
as not making AYP. All 27 Coweta County schools met testing and
attendance standards in their overall populations and in most
subgroups.
The 10 schools on the June 23 list did not meet AYP because of
student CRCT passage rates in one or more student subgroups that
were below the Annual Measurable Objective (AMO).
On the state’s June 23 list, the schools not
making AYP (and the reasons for the designation) are:
-
Arnall Middle
School
(for CRCT Math test passage rates in the Students with
Disabilities subgroup)
-
East Coweta Middle School
(for CRCT Math test passage rates in the Students with
Disabilities, Economically Disadvantaged and
African-American subgroups, and for CRCT Reading and
English/Language Arts test passage rates in the Students
with Disabilities subgroup)
-
Evans Middle School
(for CRCT Math test passage rates in the Students with
Disabilities subgroup)
-
Lee Middle School
(for CRCT Math test passage rates in the African-American
subgroup)
-
Madras Middle School
(for CRCT Math test passage rates for the Students with
Disabilities subgroup)
-
Smokey Road Middle School
(for CRCT Math test passage rates in the Students with
Disabilities subgroups and for CRCT Reading and
English/Language Arts passage rates for the Students with
Disabilities subgroup)
-
Ruth Hill Elementary School
(for CRCT Math test passage rates in the African-American
subgroup)
-
Welch Elementary School
(for CRCT Math test passage rates in the Economically
Disadvantaged subgroup)
-
Western Elementary School
(for CRCT Math test passage rates in the African-American
and Economically Disadvantaged subgroups)
-
White Oak Elementary School
(for CRCT Math test passage rates in the Economically
Disadvantaged subgroup)
System Status
Separate from the 27 Coweta County schools
examined under No Child Left behind, the school system as a
whole is given an AYP status. Essentially, system-wide AYP
status is determined as though the 22,000-student school system
were one large school. The system is then judged by the same
standards, at all levels, and among all subgroups.
Just as with individual schools, testing,
attendance and graduation rate criteria are considered to
determine if the school system met AYP standards overall and in
every subgroup.
-
The Coweta County School System
did not make AYP for 2007-08 on the state’s July 23 report
(for CRCT and GHSGT Math test passage rates, CRCT
English/Language Arts passage rates, and graduation rates in
the Students with Disabilities subgroup.)
The Coweta County School System made AYP in
18 out of 18 areas in the 2006-07 school year (last year).
The minimum size of a subgroup (as defined by
No Child Left Behind) must be 40 students. Subgroups that often
do not appear in individual school’s AYP reports do appear in
system-wide AYP status reports, because when the school system’s
enrolled population as a whole is considered there are at least
40 students who meet the federal criteria system-wide. Thus,
most subgroups considered by No Child Left Behind do appear in
Coweta County’s AYP results.
In 2007-08 (this year) the school system met
AYP standards among all students as a whole and in every other
subgroup with the exception of the three criteria in the
Students with Disabilities subgroup.
AYP status will change in September
Based on
Coweta County estimates of retest math scores, six of the ten
Coweta County schools reported on this initial list as not
making AYP are expected to have their status reversed to making
AYP in September.
Initially not making Adequate Yearly Progress
(AYP) on the initial July report but expected to make Adequate
Yearly Progress (AYP) on the September report are:
The other four schools (Arnall Middle School,
East Coweta Middle School, Ruth Hill Elementary, and Western
Elementary) are not expected to make AYP under the state
recalculation in September.
No determination has been made if the school
system’s AYP status as a whole will be changed following the
state’s September report.
Needs Improvement status
Under No Child Left Behind, a school is identified as “Needs
Improvement” if it has not made Adequate Yearly Progress in the
same subject for two consecutive years. Once identified as Needs
Improvement, a school must make AYP for two consecutive years to
come off the Needs Improvement list.
Four schools are listed as “Needs
Improvement” schools on the June state report. They are Arnall
Middle School, East Coweta Middle School, Evans Middle School,
and Welch Elementary School.
Schools designated as Needs Improvement must
abide by the appropriate consequences for the needs improvement
status (beginning with NI-1 and continuing beyond NI-8) which
may include offering supplemental tutoring services or offering
transfers to schools making Adequate Yearly Progress. Coweta
County does not have any schools beyond NI-2 status.
The consequences announced by the school
system for Coweta’s four Needs Improvement schools are:
-
Arnall Middle
School
(NI-2): Limited School Choice transfers to Lee Middle
School, and supplemental services available to eligible
students.
-
East Coweta Middle School
(NI-2): Limited School Choice transfers to Smokey Road
Middle School, and supplemental services available to
eligible students.
-
Evans Middle School
(NI-2): School Choice transfers to Madras Middle School and
Lee Middle School, and supplemental services available to
eligible students.
-
Welch Elementary School
(NI-1): Supplemental services available to eligible
students.
Supplemental services are essentially outside
tutoring services that are approved by the state of Georgia and
offer services in Coweta County. Every school offering
supplemental services will have lists of available providers at
the school, and parents can request services at their school
within 45 days if they are interested.
Following the release of the second state report on AYP status
in September, Welch Elementary is expected to be rated as having
met AYP for 2007-08, and thus will be taken off the Needs
Improvement list. Supplemental services offered to Welch
students, however, will not be revoked following a change in
Welch’s AYP status.
Because the school system made AYP in all areas last year, the
school system is not in “Needs Improvement” status.
If parents wish to request transfers from the three middle
schools on the NI list, they must submit a transfer request form
to Kristy Chaffin at the 167 Werz Industrial Drive Central
Office in Newnan.
The request form must be submitted by Tuesday, August 5, to be
considered for the new school year beginning on August 6.
The form can be found online on the school system’s
www.cowetaschools.org website (follow the links at left,
under “Forms” choose “Application for Transfer” – the direct
link is “www.cowetaschools.org
/NCLB/Application_for_Transfer.pdf).
Parents can also pick up the form at the Central Office. For
more information, call Kristy Chaffin at 770-254-2800. |