State releases AYP report on Ala. schools - WSFA.com: News Weather and Sports for Montgomery, AL.

MONTGOMERY, AL (WSFA) - The Alabama Department of Education released its annual AYP report Monday detailing which schools passed and failed their Adequate Yearly Progress report.

You can see the full list of school systems that met or did not meet AYP at the bottom of this page.

CLICK HERE to see if individual schools met their marks.

CLICK HERE to dig deeper. See how your school did on individual portions of AYP. 

More than 75 percent of Alabama public schools made Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) as identified by the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB). Out of 1,375 Alabama public schools, 1,033 schools met 100 percent of their goals to make AYP – despite increasingly difficult NCLB requirements.

PERFECTION REQUIREMENTS  

"As the deadline of 2014 gets closer, the requirement of perfection gets closer. Having the 'requirement' of No Child Left Behind that every student in America be proficient in Reading and Mathematics is very different than the 'goal' aspiring that every student hit that mark," stated Dr. Joe Morton, State Superintendent of Education. "Every year the bar gets higher and higher and every year Alabama students show improvement. The challenge is to have our improvement trajectory be the same increase as the annual goal requirement trajectory."

"While every state in America is required to have 100 percent compliance with the law, no state will be able to meet that requirement because there is no leeway in the requirement of 100 percent of the students in our nation meeting the challenge," Morton stated as he called for the Reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind Act currently in Congress to include a growth model compliance that recognizes states such as Alabama that have shown academic improvements.

RESPONSIBILITY

"We know and accept the responsibility to teach every child to the fullest extent of their capabilities, and that is why Pre-K, the Reading Initiative, the Math, Science, and Technology Initiative, and the Distance Education Initiative are so essential to Alabama's future. Those programs coupled with the new graduation plan (FIRST CHOICE), graduation coaches, Making Middle Grades Work, and increased AP courses will help Alabama schools meet any challenge in the next reauthorized federal law," said Morton.

For 2010, 51 school systems and 342 schools did not make AYP (did not achieve 100 percent of their individual goals). Out of 51 school systems, 30 did not meet the goal for special education students. Other subgroups not meeting the goal at the high school span included limited-English proficient students, black, Hispanic, white and students receiving free or reduced meals.

ATTENDANCE RATES RISE

Alabama's AYP attendance rate goal is 95 percent or improvement. However, for the 2009-10 school year, the rate was adjusted to 90 percent due to the impact of the H1N1 virus across the state. Alabama‟s schools met and surpassed the adjusted attendance rate goal with 94 percent.

"With fewer schools and school systems making AYP, there is an unknown factor of the role the H1N1 virus and the significant drop in student attendance played in the final results. School attendance statewide dropped from 98 percent in 2008-09 to 94 percent in 2009-10, primarily due to the H1N1 virus. It was significant enough that the U.S. Department of Education permitted Alabama a waiver on the 95 percent attendance requirement for one year," explained Morton.

GRADUATION RATES MISSED

Alabama's graduation rate goal is 90 percent or meets the improvement target. Alabama schools missed the graduation rate goal of 90 percent with approximately 87 percent graduating for the class of 2009, but still made more than 1 percent improvement from the previous year which allowed Alabama to meet the improvement target.

The good news is that reading and mathematics scores have continued to increase across time in Grades 3-8. For example, Alabama‟s 3rd grade reading scores for all students continue to surpass AYP goals. For 2010, the percentage of proficient Alabama students in Grade 3 is 86.56 percent, surpassing the NCLB requirement for 2010 of 85 percent proficient. From 2005 to 2010, Alabama students' proficiency (based on ARMT) in reading and mathematics increased.

Governor Bob Riley said, "Alabama's public schools have made tremendous progress during the past few years, but the bar is raised every year. Even so, over 75 percent of our schools met all their goals. The Reading Initiative, ACCESS, AMSTI, and AP courses – the programs we have in place – do make a difference." 

WSFA 12 News will have full reports on our news casts throughout the day on these school systems.

©2010 WSFA. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.