Release of certified adequate yearly progress (AYP) results won’t occur until September, said North Carolina State Schools Superintendent Mike Ward at the 2003 AYP video conference in July. The conference was cosponsored by the Public School Forum and the Public Schools of N.C. AYP results measure how student groups, schools, and districts are doing in meeting the goals of the No Child Left Behind federal education law. The state will release the official results for AYP in the fall, at the same time that state ABC’s scores become available to the public.

Speaking from Raleigh, a panel of three representatives of state school interests met with educators, the media, and school administrators in the video communications room at the Department of Public Instruction. On the panel were Superintendent Mike Ward; John Dornan, executive director of the Public School Forum of North Carolina; and Howard Lee, chairman of the State Board of Education.

The video conference was linked to sites in Asheville, Charlotte, Greensboro, Greenville, and Wilmington. Two-way remote feeds allowed questions for the panel from all of the sites. As the presentations began, the state simultaneously posted preliminary AYP results on the web.

Early indications

In North Carolina, early data show that about 47 percent of schools will likely make their AYP goals in every category. That’s what the law requires for a “passing” school. According to reports appearing in The News & Observer of Raleigh some schools that were rated “schools of excellence” under the ABC’s accountability system won’t make the grade if preliminary results stand.

Green Hope Elementary in North Raleigh was cited by the N&O as a school of excellence that failed to meet one target, resulting in failure for the school. Reading scores for low-income students did not make adequate yearly progress. “If we were teachers grading our school, we would have made it,” Principal Annice Hood commented to The News & Observer about the school making 95 percent of its total targets.

Green Hope elementary hosted Gov. Mike Easley’s press conference for the National Assessment of Educational Progress 2002 reading and math scores in June. Easley praised the state’s performance on the NAEP tests, emphasizing the need to adopt the NAEP’s national standard as a means of comparing North Carolina to other states.

The NAEP sets a proficiency standard considerably above that required by ABC’s grade-level readiness. By NAEP standards, just 32 percent of fourth-graders in North Carolina met the proficient-or-above standard in reading.

AYP and Title I federal funds

Schools that have high percentages of low-income children receive Title I federal funds the federal government. About half of North Carolina schools use Title I funds. If a school does not meet the NCLB adequate yearly progress standard, it may lose its Title I funding.

The thrust of the adequate yearly progress requirement in No Child Left Behind is to address education practices as well as student achievement.

According to the North Carolina preliminary briefing on AYP, the purpose of No Child Left Behind is “for all public school children to perform at grade level in reading and mathematics by the end of the 2013-14 school year.”

Starting points and timelines

Schools must test at least 95 percent of children in each subcategory, according to the law. Every three years, the progress of each subcategory of children will be measured against a predetermined benchmark. In theory, progress could remain flat in the years between benchmarks, but in practice it will probably be moving toward the next level. In 2013-14, all groups should be at 100 percent proficiency.

North Carolina filed its improvement plan with the U.S. Department of Education in 2002, and was one of the first dozen states to be approved. The state now has proficiency starting percentages in each grade and subject, and target proficiencies it must hit at regular intervals. Tenth-graders in the state will have to make relatively steep progress to achieve 100 percent proficiency by 2014, given their starting points in reading and math.

A subgroup that “counts” in a school is one that has 40 or more student members. Each subgroup, and the school as a whole, must make adequate yearly progress for the school to pass. A school will fail if one or more subgroups don’t meet the AYP goal.

Under NCLB, even schools like Green Hope that are schools of excellence under the ABC’s, can fail.

“Although the law is a federal one,” the Adequate Yearly Progress press briefing reads, “compliance was decided upon through many state decisions on assessments, starting points, and target goals, increments of target goal increases, the minimum number of students needed to comprise a group, days of membership necessary to be considered full-time students, and what constitutes progress for attendance and graduation rates used in accountability calculations.”

If schools miss some targets, but still make “significant year-to-year improvement,” they may still make AYP under the “safe harbor” provision of the law.

Safe harbor applies if a school reduces the percentage of students scoring below proficient by 10 percent over the previous year, and makes progress on an “other academic indicator” for that group.

This is typically the graduation rate for that group, but may be another measure. Measures such as graduation rates can be disaggregated to show how particular groups are performing.

North Carolina seems to be moving toward an external yardstick in education. Adopting a national standard such as the NAEP will mean serious work ahead for students and teachers alike. But state officials are optimistic.

Commenting on the state’s education budget, the governor noted in his address at Green Hope that “some very important things” had been accomplished. “We’ve reduced class size to 18, the magic number where you see results,” he said.

Palasek is an assistant editor at Carolina Journal.