Despite Progress, District Remains on Needs Improvement List
Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) data released today shows Cobb
County students made significant improvements over 2005,
especially in subgroups of students that caused the District
to miss AYP in previous years. The Governor’s Office of
Student Achievement (OSA) released the 2006 AYP determinations
for all schools and districts in the state of Georgia.
Despite the progress made by most of Cobb’s students, the
District remains on a list of school districts in Georgia
identified as not making “Adequate Yearly Progress”. Districts
and schools that do not make AYP for two consecutive years are
deemed “Needs Improvement”. Cobb is on the Needs Improvement
list for the second year. As in 2005, the academic performance
of subgroups resulted in the District not making Adequate
Yearly Progress. In 2005, the subgroups were English Language
Learners, Hispanic Students, and Students With Disabilities
who did not meet standards in multiple subject areas at
multiple levels. In 2006, the subgroups were Black students
and Students With Disabilities in only one subject area,
mathematics, and at only one level, the Georgia High School
Graduation Test.
This year the state raised the bar for high school
mathematics, increasing the required percentage of students
needing to meet or exceed academic standards from 62.3 percent
to 68.6 percent. And while the two subgroups showed progress
from 2005 to 2006, the gain was not enough to push the
District to the required higher standard in math.
Overall, the subgroups identified in 2005 as not meeting
standards made significant improvements (Open
PDF file).
Following last year’s report, the District developed a
comprehensive School System Improvement Plan to address the
areas of need. The plan appears to have been effective.
English Language Learners, Hispanic students, and Students
with Disabilities met the required standards in
English/Language Arts and were removed from the list. English
Language Learners and Hispanic students also were removed from
the list in mathematics.
At the school level, 83 Cobb County schools (79.8 percent) met
all AYP requirements in 2006, which means that 21 schools did
not. That compares to 84 schools (84 percent) that met AYP
requirements in 2005, and 16 that did not. This year, three
schools were removed completely from Needs Improvement status
– McEachern High School, Garrett Middle School, and Sanders
Elementary School. Just one school (Norton Park Elementary)
was added to Needs Improvement status.
“No Child Left Behind has presented Cobb and all other school
districts with a formidable challenge,” said Cobb
Superintendent Fred Sanderson. “As a whole, our District is
performing very well, but there are isolated subgroups of
students who are not meeting the standards in specific
subjects. Last year we developed a strategy to target those
subgroups and the results clearly show that we were
successful. This year, a new subgroup that wasn’t targeted by
our improvement plan did not meet the standard, so the work
that we did wasn’t enough to change Needs Improvement status.
We still have more work to do, and we know that we can’t leave
any subgroup unattended.”
The state has three requirements to make Adequate Yearly
Progress:
1) Schools must test 95 percent of all students in all
subgroups in both English/Language
Arts/Reading and
Mathematics.
2) A set percentage of students must meet or exceed standards
on state tests (CRCT, GHSGT)
in all subgroups – regardless of
ability. Those percentages are:
a. Elementary/Middle English/Language Arts: 66.7 percent
scoring 800+ on CRCT
b. Elementary/Middle Math: 58.3 percent scoring 300+ on CRCT
in grades 3, 4, 5, 7, 8;
800+ on CRCT in grade 6
c. High School English/Language Arts: 84.7 percent scoring
511+ on GHSGT
d. High School Math: 68.6 percent scoring 516+ on GHSGT
3) Schools must also meet requirements of a “second
indicator”:
a. Elementary/Middle: Attendance (Less than 15 percent of
students absent 15 days or more)
b. High School: Graduation Rate (60 percent or more of
students with a regular diploma)
For more information and charts,
click here
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