Making AYP

Making AYP and Standardized testing are hot topics, but not necessarily a favorite topic among teachers and administrators.

On January 8, 2002 President George W. Bush signed the Elementary Secondary Education Act: No Child Left Behind, into law. Since then schools across our nation have been scrambling to understand and implement the law which states that ALL students will score at proficient or above by 2014. NCLB requires states to create an accountability system; test, graduation rates, attendance and other indicators. Schools have to meet adequate yearly progress (AYP) goals, as set by each state, by raising levels of achievement for subgroups of students such as minorities, special education, and those from low-income families, to a state-determined level. Every student must reach proficiency levels, as determined by the state in which they live, by 2013-2014 school year.

So how do we get ALL students scoring at a proficient level?

All students scoring at proficient or above is just one way in which schools can meet their AYP goals. Utilizing Safe Harbor and Growth Models are other avenues which can help schools show success in students' growth. Let's take a closer look at these.

Safe Harbor: A school can make Safe Harbor, and AYP, if the percent not proficient the previous year is reduced by at least 10 percent. For example, if a school had 60 percent proficient (i.e., 40 percent not proficient) in the 2010 school year they would need at least 64 percent (10 percent of 40 added to the 60 percent from 2010) proficient in the school year 2011 to make Safe Harbor.

Growth Model:  Includes the primary elements of the NCLB law, such as annual testing and reporting of subgroup data, plus increasing student achievement and a narrowing of the achievement gap. It also ensures that progress is being made. A Growth Model uses the same annual test data to determine how much academic growth or progress a student makes between two points in time.

Once a student scores below proficiency they have either four years or until 10th grade to reach proficiency, which ever comes first. Assuming a student has the full four years to reach proficiency they must decrease the gap between their initial score and the score to reach proficiency by one-quarter the first year, one-third the second year, one-half the third year and finally be required to reach proficiency in the fourth year. For students that do they are considered to be 'on track to becoming proficient' and will count as proficient for the school and district's AYP determinations.

For example, in Missouri a score of 648 means a student reached proficiency in reading for third grade. So if a student scored a 420 in third grade they would have to score a 485 in fourth grade (take the proficient score for seventh grade 680 and subtract the score they got in third grade 680-420=260 then divide this by 4 which is 65 ponts. Thus a student must raise their score by 65 points a year for the next four years to be proficient in seventh grade.) They would score a 550 in fifth grade, a 615 in sixth grade and 680 in seventh grade, scoring in the proficient range.

Another example, in Alaska a score of 300 means a student reached proficiency across all grades. If a student scored a 260 in third grade they would have to score 270 (300-260=40, 40/4=10) in the fourth grade, 280 in the fifth grade, and 290 in the sixth grade to be considered 'on track to becoming proficient' in each of those grades. After 4 years the student must reach proficiency (300) in the seventh grade.

Both these Growth Models hold promise as reliable and innovative methods to measure student achievement over time.

States must meet certain core principles to qualify for the Growth Model. There are 15 states who have met the qualifications and currently use a Growth Model.

Alaska, Arkansas, Arizona, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Texas.

If you would like to read the Interim Report on the Evaluation of the Growth Model Pilot Project 2010 please check out the link below.

http://www2.ed.gov/rschstat/eval/disadv/growth-model-pilot/gmpp.pdf 

To find out how to submit a strong proposal for your state to get approved for a Growth Model follow the following link.

http://www2.ed.gov/admins/lead/account/growthmodel/cssoltr09-08.html

References,

PRESS RELEASES
Secretary Spellings Approves Additional Growth Model Pilots for 2008-2009 School Year