Adequate Yearly Progress
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What is AYP?
Want to know more?
What determines whether we make AYP?
What happens when a school does not make AYP?
How does a school move out of Needs Improvement (NI) status?
Want to know even more?

 
What is AYP? AYP stands for Adequate Yearly Progress and it is a measure used by the state of Georgia to determine which schools are making progress from year to year. Although all states use AYP as part of the federal No Child Left Behind Act, each state decides how to calculate whether a school is making adequate progress. For our school, AYP is determined by looking at academic performance, test participation, and daily student attendance. Currently, the critical subject areas for determining AYP are Reading, English Language Arts, and Math. Back to Top

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To make AYP, each school and district must meet the following criteria:

  • 95% Participation: Each school, as a whole, and all student groups with at least 40 members (or 10% of total population, up to 75 students) must have a participation rate of 95% or above on selected state assessments in Reading/English Language Arts and Mathematics.
     
  • Annual Measurable Objectives: Each school, as a whole, and each student group meeting the minimum group size must meet or exceed the State's Annual Measurable Objectives (AMO) regarding the percentage of students scoring proficient or advanced on State assessments in Reading/English Language Arts and Mathematics. For AMO, the minimum group size is 40 or 10% of the students enrolled in AYP grades, whichever is greater (with a 75 student cap).
     
  • Second Indicator: Each school must meet the standard or show progress on a Second Indicator. For Second Indicator, the minimum group size is 40 or 10% of the students enrolled in AYP grades, whichever is greater (with a 75 student cap).
     
    In defining AYP, each state sets the minimum levels of improvement, based on student performance on state standardized tests, which school districts and schools must achieve within time frames specified in law in order to meet the 100% proficiency goal by 2014. These levels of improvement are known as Annual Measurable Objectives (AMO). AMO was established by the state to ensure that all student groups, schools, school districts, and the State as a whole reach this goal by 2013-2014.

    Georgia's plan for AYP allows flexibility in how schools can demonstrate AMO. There are four ways:
     
    1. direct comparison of student performance to AMO
    2. confidence interval
    3. multiyear averaging
    4. safe harbor

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    What determines whether we make AYP?

  • Every student?s CRCT scores in the areas of Reading, English/Language Arts, and Mathematics; this includes students with disabilities, students who speak other languages, gifted students, regular education students, SST students, and all other students in between
     
  • Every student?s daily and period attendance throughout the school year including all excused and unexcused absences

    Last year, Evans made AYP in all academic areas in all student groups, but did not make AYP in the area of student attendance for all students or students with disabilities.

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    What happens when a school does not make AYP?

    Under No Child Left Behind, there is no consequence the first year that a school does not meet AYP. While all Coweta County Schools write and review annual school improvement plans, schools that do not make AYP pay close attention to areas of weakness regarding AYP.

    Schools that do not meet AYP criteria in the same subject for two or more consecutive years are placed in Needs Improvement (NI) status with escalating consequences for each successive year of not meeting AYP criteria. Same subject is defined by the state as two years of not meeting Reading and English/Language Arts criteria (based on participation or academic performance) or two years of not meeting Mathematics criteria (based on participation or academic performance) or two years of not meeting second indicator criteria. The second indicator for our school is student attendance.

    According to the state, a Needs Improvement school is simply a school that has been identified as needing to improve in specific areas. While the state stresses that Needs Improvement schools are NOT failing schools, stakeholders often interpret NI status as such. Schools that do not make AYP for two or more years in the same subject are in Needs Improvement status and are required to begin implementing school-level consequences including:
  • School Improvement Plan
  • School Choice
  • Supplemental Education Services/Instructional Extension
  • Corrective Action Plan
  • Restructuring Plan

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    How does a school move out of Needs Improvement (NI) status?

    Just as it takes two consecutive years of not making AYP to be identified as Needs Improvement under No Child Left Behind, it takes two consecutive years of making AYP for a school to move out of Needs Improvement status. If an NI school makes AYP for one year, it does not move out of NI status until the second consecutive year. For Evans, this means that we must make AYP during this testing year (April 2008) as well as next testing year (April 2009) before we move out of Needs Improvement status. If we make AYP one year and fail to make AYP the second consecutive year, we continue to remain in Needs Improvement status and must continue implementing No Child Left Behind?s school improvement consequences.

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    Want to know even more?

    Visit the Georgia Department of Education online at www.gadoe.org for more information about AYP including school and district AYP reports.

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