Currents in Education
Local schools continue to meet No Child Left Behind requirements
By Jennifer L. Saunders
YORK - Maine Department of Education Commissioner Susan Gendron released the status of the state's elementary and middle schools in their efforts to meet No Child Left Behind's Adequate Yearly Progress requirements, and for local schools, it's all good news.Or, as educators familiar with the standards and requirements point out, it's good news so far.
According to Gendron's report, which was released on Monday, Sept. 18, a total of 457 schools, or 92 percent of Maine's 516 tested public schools for grades four and eight, have met Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) for 2006 as measured by the 2005-2006 results of the Maine Educational Assessment (MEA).
York received word of its above-average MEA as the school year was set to begin, and the latest word on AYP achievement also came as welcome news.
"State notification of the status of York Schools having attained the Adequate Yearly Progress targets established in reading and math at grades 4 and 8 is good news for our school system," York School Department Curriculum Coordinator Dr. Maryann Minard said Monday. "Each year, the results of the Maine Educational Assessments are first reported as both individual and district average student achievement results, and then are analyzed after the results are broken down into subgroups. These subgroups must meet defined targets to demonstrate through assessment results that we are attending to the educational needs of all students."
Both Coastal Ridge Elementary School and York Middle School, which are the only York schools included so far in the state's implementation of NCLB, made AYP in the tested areas of reading and math.
"Results are reported by students' race, ethnicity, socio-economic status, limited English proficiency and identified disabilities," Minard explained of the AYP assessment process. "The growth targets are set high, and many of our children in the identified subgroups have considerable challenges. If we meet these growth targets for all subgroups, we are determined to have made AYP. We must also demonstrate that we have had at least an 88 percent average daily attendance rate for those subgroups."
Last March, the MEA was given to students in grades 3 through 8 in every public school the state and, as has been the case for the past four years, the results of those tests for grades 4 and 8 were used to determine each school's AYP status.
In 2007, Gendron noted in her announcement of Maine's AYP status, that will change. School AYP will be based on results for all elementary or middle school grades. The No Child Left Behind Act requires testing of all students in grades 3 through 8 and once again in high school.
"The No Child Left Behind timeline for having all students meet the standards by 2014 is a lofty goal, and one that every school in the nation aspires to attain, but I believe all educators recognize the near impossibility of making that happen for 100 percent of our children," Minard said of the ongoing efforts. "So, while we are pleased to have made AYP this year, as the growth targets become increasingly higher, we will continue to do our very best, but also recognize the magnitude of this requirement."
According to the Maine Department of Education, 26 Maine schools did not meet AYP for the first time in 2006 in math, reading or average daily attendance and have been designated as Monitor Schools while 25 other schools that did not make AYP for 2006 in either math or reading, or both, for the second, third, or fourth year have been designated as Continuous Improvement Priority Schools. An additional 22 schools, which tested fewer than 20 fourth- or eighth-grade students in three years, are considered too small for an AYP determination.
The AYP status for the state's high schools, which reflects results from the 2004-2005 MEA and the 2005-2006 SAT, will be released at a later date.
