Hard work by teachers and students credited for schools' success

Corinth Elementary Principal Brenda Sharts and Draytonville Elementary principal Janice Ford were pleasantly surprised last week when their schools met this year's No Child Left Behind goals.

Corinth and Draytonville were among four of the county's 15 elementary and middle schools that made adequate yearly progress (AYP). Blacksburg Primary and Alma Elementary were the other local schools. Statewide, only 18 percent of elementary and middle schools met AYP.

The release of high school AYP data has been postponed while the state Department of Education checks graduation rates.

No Child Left Behind requires schools to break out student performance into a number of subgroups such as ethnicity, special education, poverty and limited ability with English.

Most schools have 17 or 21 of these AYP targets. Schools must meet every goal in order to meet AYP for the year.

"We are really excited. This shows our teachers and students hard work," Ford said. "We were able to make AYP by showing significant improvement among groups of students. This will be a challenge every year."

Title 1 schools receiving federal academic funds can face consequences for not making AYP in a subject in two straight years. Title 1 schools have more than 50 percent of students qualify for free and reduced lunch.

Luther Vaughan, Mary Bramlett, Blacksburg and Limestone-Central elementaries are currently on the state's school improvement list. The county schools must offer parents a choice between tutoring and school transfer options.

"It takes two years to get in school improvement and two years for schools to get out," said Elizabeth Brittain, the district's Title 1 coordinator.

No Child Left Behind will continue to demand schools get higher student achievement in order to make the grade.

To make AYP this year, elementary schools needed at least 58.5 percent of their students to score proficient on state tests in English. In math, 57.8 percent of students had to score proficient.

These student performance levels were up from 2007 when at least 38.2 percent of students had to score proficient in English and 36.7 percent had to score proficient in math.

No Child Left Behind will continue to be a moving target for schools. If the law remains unchanged, 100 percent of students will be expected to score at the proficient level by 2014.

Four out of five elementary and middle schools did not make AYP when student performance targets jumped above 50 percent this year.

At Corinth Elementary, Sharts said it is difficult to explain the complicated formula used in No Child Left Behind to determine whether schools make adequate yearly progress.

"Our school had really good test scores that were better than the district and state average. I think our school made it based on improvement," Sharts said. "We are very excited our students continue to show increased scores. It is a credit to the hard work done by our teachers and students."