AYP or Adequate Yearly Progress was a program designed during the Bush administration as a part of the "No Child Left Behind Act". It was designed to ensure that all students excel in the areas of reading/language arts and mathematics. It also measures graduation rates for high schools and attendance rates for elementary and middle schools. This year (2009/10) out of 133 schools in DeKalb County 50 did not make AYP. That's almost 38%!! This was based on academic performance alone. I don't know about you but I believe that is an astounding number. This means that according to federal standards the students are not equipped with enough academic knowledge to pass these standardized tests. So, what do we do? There is no easy answer for that question. I am pretty sure all of the schools that did not make AYP this year are asking the same questions. As many of you know Georgia also has CRCT, which is another group of standardized tests that students must pass. So are teachers to spend the majority of their time preparing their students for these standardized tests or are they to focus on making sure they understand the lesson each day? Do they both go hand in hand?
Do you know that there are some students who just don't do well on standardized tests? It doesn't matter how much they practice or how much they know they do not perform well under pressure. So, what do we do about those students? There are schools are the verge of being shut down in DeKalb Co. because they have never made AYP or have not passed more than twice in a row. I believe there are solutions. I do believe that yearly progress reports are good because they hold schools (administrators and teachers) accountable for the success of their school but these reports must take into consideration the demographics of the community. The majority of DeKalb Co students are black. So, are we saying that students of color just can't cut it academically, of course not. That idea alone is preposterous. So, it should be our goal to figure out the reason why 50 of our schools cannot make AYP. Do we need to change the teachers, the administrators, get the parents more involved? Let's figure it out and get it done!
For more information about AYP click here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adequate_Yearly_Progress.
Also to check out your schools AYP results in GA click here http://public.doe.k12.ga.us/
Marcella...you sure do your research girl. This is what you are supposed to be doing - ensuring that the students under your watch get the best education they can. Keep it up!
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