In the 2008-09 Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) report released by
the Georgia State Department of Education, all three Coweta
County high schools made AYP, as did all 18 elementary schools.
Four of Coweta County’s six middle schools made AYP as well.
The Coweta County School System also made Adequate Yearly
Progress as a school system among all subgroups of students
tracked by the report.
“These results reflect the diligent work of our students,
teachers, and principals,” said Superintendent Blake Bass. “Our
schools generally do well, but this is exceptional.”
“Almost all of our schools and our school system as a whole met
the standards of No Child Left Behind,” said Bass. “In the case
of Evans Middle School and Lee Middle School, a single subgroup
of students did not meet AYP standards. Overall, our students
and teachers did a great job.”
Bass noted that 93 percent of Coweta County’s schools made AYP,
compared to 79 percent in the state of Georgia.
Adequate Yearly Progress is a measure of the federal No Child
Left Behind (NCLB) act. The report tracks the academic progress
of schools every year by monitoring average student attendance
(for elementary and middle schools) or high school graduation
rate (for high schools), and student academic performance on
state standardized tests given during the year. In Georgia, the
Math, Reading and English/Language Arts portions of the Georgia
Criterion Reference Competency Test (CRCT) or the Georgia High
School Graduation Test (GHSGT) are used.
Schools are judged by the percentage of students who meet or
exceed the standards of those tests during the school year. The
performance of students is also tracked by subgroups including
Students with Disabilities, Economically Disadvantaged Students,
English Language Learners, and ethnic subgroups.
Schools make Adequate Yearly Progress if an adequate percentage
of students meet yearly standards, and if all subgroups within
the school’s population also meet the standards. If one or more
subgroups within the school do not meet standards, then the
whole school is deemed to have not made Adequate Yearly
Progress.
Both Evans Middle School and Lee Middle School met academic
standards for their students overall and in most subgroups. The
schools narrowly did not meet No Child Left Behind act standards
in CRCT Mathematics for the subgroup of Students with
Disabilities.
The state of Georgia will recalculate AYP performance in
September to take into account the scores of 3rd, 5th, and 8th
grade students who passed a retest of the CRCT in reading and
math. Students who did not pass those tests in April were
retested in May after remediation.
Based on preliminary records, the school system expects that
Evans Middle School’s status will be changed to “meeting AYP”
when that report is issued in the fall.
More information about the Georgia No Child Left Behind annual
report can be found on the Georgia Department of Education’s
website at
www.gadoe.org.
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.
Schools designated as Needs Improvement must abide by the
appropriate consequences for the needs improvement status which
may include offering supplemental tutoring services or offering
transfers to other schools that are identified as transfer sites
by the school district.
Three Coweta County schools are listed as “Needs Improvement” on
the state report. They are Arnall Middle School, East Coweta
Middle School, and Evans Middle School.
Evans Middle school made AYP in the 2007-08 school year. When
Evans Middle School’s AYP status is corrected in the fall, the
middle school will drop the Needs Improvement designation.
Transfers and supplemental services will still apply at Evans
throughout the school year.
The consequences announced by the school system for Coweta’s
three Needs Improvement schools are:
- Arnall Middle School: School Choice transfers and
supplemental services available to eligible students.
- East Coweta Middle School: School Choice transfers and
supplemental services available to eligible students.
- Evans Middle School: School Choice transfers, and
supplemental services available to eligible students.
Parents will be able to apply for transfers from the three
schools before the new school year begins in August. Transfer
sites for the three schools and the dates during which parents
can request transfers will be announced shortly. |