DHS Among Four Dunwoody Schools that Didn't Meet AYP Standards

Dunwoody’s public high school, middle school and two of its elementary schools did not meet the standards set by the No Child Left Behind program for the 2010-2011 school year, according to initial numbers released by the Georgia Department of Education Thursday.

Adequate yearly progress (AYP) is a measurement used in the No Child Left Behind education policy.  These are preliminary scores, which could change after summer retests, summer graduates and appeals. Final AYP numbers will be released in September.

Schools are graded on standardized test scores and how subsets of students within the school perform on those tests.

The AYP tests have two subject areas – mathematics and reading/English. Each year, the standards for achievement on the test are raised.

In the case of Dunwoody High School, it is the second time in the last three years the school didn’t meet AYP. The school did not meet AYP in 2009.

On the English/reading section of the test, the standard for meeting AYP was 90.8 percent.  Two subgroups did not hit that level. The Hispanic subgroup missed that mark, scoring a group average 86.2 percent. The economically disadvantaged subgroup scored 85.7 percent.

As a whole, the school scored 93.2 percent.

On the mathematics test, all groups met the standard of 76 percent. As a whole, the school scored 86.8 percent.

The school’s graduation rate fell from 92 percent in 2009, to 90.8 in 2010 to 87.6 in 2011.

Peachtree Charter Middle School did not meet AYP this year either.

On the mathematics section, students in the black and Hispanic sub-groups did not meet AYP, as well as in the subgroups of students with disabilities, English language learners and economically disadvantaged students.

On the English/reading section students in the English language learners subgroup did not meet AYP.

At Hightower Elementary School, the English Language Learners subgroup did not meet AYP in Mathematics, scoring 68.3 percent – the AYP standard was 76.3 percent.

All groups met the standard in English/reading.

At Kingsley Elementary, the student body as a whole didn’t meet AYP in Mathematics, missing the goal of 75.7 percent by one percentage point. The Hispanic and economically disadvantaged subgroups didn’t meet AYP in Math as well as English/reading.

For Dunwoody High School, after not meeting AYP once before in 2009, it means being put on the needs improvement list.

Still, there is the possibility that with the summer numbers that come in this fall, the school could meet AYP standards.

If DHS remains on the needs improvement list, students will have the right to transfer to better achieving schools, the school will have to offer free tutoring to students and the school will have to come up with improvement, corrective action and restructuring plans.

The county has just developed a new Triage method of helping schools deal with meeting AYP, that focused more on individual schools needs, said Trenton Arnold, Executive Director for Assessment and Accountability for the district.

“This is targeted not only for those schools struggling with AYP, but for all of our schools,” he said.

Arnold said the plan helps to limit administrative tasks for school principals so they can focus on problem areas.

“We are making sure we are providing all the assistance we can to help them meet their targets,” he said. “What Dunwoody decides as being a critical need may not necessarily be the same as what we do for another school. We’ll also be listening to schools and stakeholders in that school,” Arnold added.

“We certainly want to take it from a school-by-school approach because each one has different needs.”