NH releases AYP results Every local school district fails to make adequate yearly progress

From the Eagle Tribune;

NH releases AYP results Every local school district fails to make adequate yearly progress
By Jarret Bencks
jbencks@eagletribune.com

Every school district in the area has failed to make adequate yearly progress in either math or reading, or both, according to state data.

They aren't alone. A total of 261 public schools in the state have been labeled as "in need of improvement" by the state Department of Education. That's 28 more than last year.

Adequate yearly progress, commonly referred to as AYP, is a standard of improvement imposed by the federal government through the No Child Left Behind Act. It aims to improve standardized test scores to a point where 100 percent of students score proficient or better by 2014.

Schools and districts that don't reach improvement goals set by the state are labeled as not making adequate progress.

For districts that receive funding under Title 1 — which requires that at least 40 percent of the students enrolled are from low-income families — failing to meet adequate yearly progress can require them to provide additional services to their students, depending on how many consecutive years they fail to make progress. Services can include tutoring or added professional development.

In the past, each school required to provide such programs received $20,000 from the state to help fund them. But that won't happen this year, said Deb Wiswell of the Department of Education.

"This year, there is not enough money to do that," she said.

The department has yet to decide how it will pick which schools get that funding, Wiswell said.

Salem School District Superintendent Michael Delahanty said the progress results weren't an indication of how the district is performing as a whole. Two schools in Salem were newly added to the list of schools in need of improvement this year.

"I'm not going to defend the scores, they are what they are," he said, "but it is not a reflection of any kind of deficiency."

Students are divided into eight reading categories and nine math categories under the testing. If a district doesn't reach the improvement goals in any of the categories, it doesn't make yearly progress. Any school or district that fails to make progress two years in a row in either category is determined to be in need of improvement.

For many districts, failing to make improvements on scores from special education students has led to their failure.

"That makes it hard; it just doesn't make sense," said Mark Blount, assistant superintendent of schools in Londonderry. "I would much rather see a variety of measures used rather than just one single assessment measure."

Among local districts, only Salem and Windham managed to reach adequate progress as a district in either reading or math. They both made adequate progress in reading, according to the results.

AYP strives for 100 percent of students to test proficient or better by 2014, a standard administrators and state officials acknowledge is unreachable. Changes are likely on the way for nationwide standardized tests, as the federal government moves forward with the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.

"We have no idea where it's going," Wiswell said. "It's hard to know. We know it isn't going to go away."