More DPS schools meet AYP standards in 2007-08
Eight Durham Public Schools made Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) under the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) federal legislation this year, up from six last year.
The eight schools that met or exceeded 100 percent of their goals are, Easley, Hillandale, Lakewood, Mangum, Southwest and Watts Montessori Elementary Schools, Shepard Middle School and the Clement Early College High School.
Durham Public Schools strives for AYP, which is based on multiple factors, including tests, four-year graduation cohorts and testing 95 percent of students. For a school to meet AYP, all subgroups of students must meet AYP standards. DPS had an increased number of subgroups in Hispanic, Limited English Proficiency and Students with Disabilities in 2007-2008. It is more difficult to make AYP with larger numbers of subgroups.
New reading tests were administered in elementary and middle schools this year. Reading scores for grades 3-8 will not be released until fall. These results, therefore, are considered “preliminary,” with only three of the four sets of targets that schools must meet under AYP: mathematics participation, mathematics proficiency, and reading participation.
It is interesting to note that the 2007-08 school year was a year during which the Adequate Yearly Progress proficiency target in mathematics increased 11.4 percentage points from the 2006-2007 school year (65.8 percent to 77.2 percent), yet DPS was still able to show an increase in the number of schools meeting AYP. AYP proficiency rates will continue to increase every three years until 2014 when the target will be 100 percent of students scoring proficient.
Among the AYP highlights are:
- Seven schools missed making AYP by only one goal. They are Bethesda, Little River, Morehead Montessori, Oak Grove, E.K. Powe and Pearsontown Elementary Schools and the Performance Learning Center.
- No middle schools made AYP in 2006-07. Shepard Middle School made AYP in 2007-08. Three middle schools (DSA, Githens and Shepard) met 80 percent or more of their targets. All middle schools met 68.2 percent of their targets or more.
- One school (Club Boulevard Elementary) missed making AYP by only two goals.
- Twenty-two schools showed positive growth in meeting their percentage of targets from 2006-07 to 2007-08.
- They are Bethesda, Easley, Club Boulevard, Glenn, Hillandale, Lakewood, Little River, Watts, Oak Grove, Parkwood, Powe, Southwest, Spaulding and Smith Elementary Schools; Brogden, Chewning, Shepard, Lowe’s Grove, Neal and Githens Middle Schools; Durham School of the Arts; and Northern High School.
- Fourteen schools met 90 percent or more of their target goals. They are Bethesda, Easley, Club Boulevard, Hillandale, Lakewood, Little River, Watts, Mangum, Oak Grove, Powe, Pearsontown and Southwest Elementary Schools, Shepard Middle School and Early College High School.
- All elementary schools met 68.8% or more of their targets.
- Of 28 elementary schools 14 (half) showed positive growth from 2007 to 2008. They are Bethesda, Easley, Club Boulevard, Glenn, Hillandale, Lakewood, Little River, Watts, Oak Grove, Parkwood, Powe, Smith, Southwest and Spaulding. (Mangum showed no growth, but had met 100 percent of its targets the previous year).
