Schools

Final AYP Numbers: DHS, Hightower Make Grade

Six local schools make AYP, two miss the mark

Dunwoody High School had reason to celebrate Tuesday after final test scores showed the school improved its standing on the national No Child Left Behind Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) reports.

DHS was among six local schools to make AYP, two local schools did not.

Earlier this year, preliminary numbers released by the Georgia Department of Education indicated the school had not made AYP in two subgroups in reading/English for 2011, but scores can change after summer retests, summer graduates and appeals.

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In the case of the high school, the final numbers, released Tuesday, improved, helping the school to meet AYP.

“I am proud to announce that School made AYP for the 2010-2011 school-years,” DHS Principal Rodney Swanson wrote in an email Wednesday. “Because we have made AYP for two consecutive years, we are no longer on the Needs Improvement list. Our goal is to continue providing quality instruction to help our students grow academically. I would like to thank the students, parents, and faculty and staff for your commitment to Dunwoody's success. We will continue to strive for academic excellence for all of our students.”

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Adequate yearly progress (AYP) is a measurement for school used in the No Child Left Behind education policy.

Schools are graded on standardized test scores and how subsets of students within the school perform on those tests. Those standards are increased each year. 

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

District wide, 72 of DeKalb County's 136 schools did not meet AYP.

At Dunwoody High School 89.3 percent of students met or exceeded the AYP standard on the Mathematics section, beating the baseline of 76 percent.

On the English/reading, the school had 94.7 percent meet or exceed AYP, beating the baseline of 90.8 percent.

Two subgroups that had missed the mark when the preliminary scores were released improved their scores on the English/reading section, though not to the 90.8 percent standard. The Hispanic subgroup rose from 86.2 percent to 87.9 percent. The economically disadvantaged subgroup increased its number from 85.7 percent to 87.3 percent.

Through a statistical formula called the confidence interval, the two subgroups had scores good enough to make AYP.

“There are ways that schools can make AYP if they don’t make the absolute bar,” said Matt Cardoza with the Georgia Department of Education. “If they don’t make it, it goes to confidence interval. In this case, both Hispanic and economically disadvantaged subgroups made it when it went to the confidence interval.”

The confidence interval is a bit like a margin of error in a poll, setting a range for the reliability of an estimate of a subgroup's score. If that range includes the AYP baseline, then the subgroup meets AYP.

Dunwoody High School had not met AYP in 2009. Missing AYP twice in three years can put a school on the needs improvement list, which, among other things, allows students to transfer to better achieving schools in the district.

Peachtree Charter Middle School did not meet AYP this year.

On the mathematics section, the school scored an overall 85.5 percent meeting or exceeding AYP, beating the baseline of 75.7 percent. However, 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 93.6 percent of students met or beat the baseline of 80 percent, but the English language learners subgroup did not meet AYP.

Kingsley Elementary’s student body as a whole met AYP in Mathematics, surpassing the baseline of 75.7 percent with 79.1 percent of students meeting AYP.

School wide, the students scored 90.1 percent, beating the baseline of 80 percent.

However, the Hispanic and economically disadvantaged subgroups didn’t meet AYP in Math as well as English/reading.

Five Dunwoody elementary schools did meet AYP.

Vanderlyn Elementary School  97.0 percent of students met AYP on the mathematics portion, the baseline for which was 75.7 percent. On the English/reading section 99.5 percent of students met AYP, scoring well above the baseline of 80 percent.

At Hightower Elementary School, the school beat the 80 percent baseline for the English/reading section, 90.8 percent of the school met AYP on the section.

In Mathematics, the school averaged 80.6 percent – the AYP standard was 75.7 percent.

Preliminary scores had the school not meeting AYP, but the final numbers pushed Hightower into the ‘Met AYP’ standard.

94.1 percent of the school made AYP on the mathematics portion, the baseline for which was 75.7 percent. On the English/reading section 97.1 percent of students made AYP, scoring well above the baseline of 80 percent.

 also met AYP, with 97.2 percent of students making AYP on the mathematics portion, beating the 75.7 percent baseline. On the English/reading section 98.3 percent of students made AYP.

At  79.0 percent of students met AYP on the mathematics portion, the baseline for which was 75.7 percent. On the English/reading section the 88.1 percent of students met AYP, scoring well above the baseline of 80 percent.

 

Look up school school scores here: http://public.doe.k12.ga.us/ayp2011/search.asp

 

A previous version of this story wrongly indicated Dunwoody High School’s status with Adequate Yearly Progress, the national measure for school improvement. The school made Adequate Yearly Progress for the 2010-2011 school year. Dunwoody Patch regrets the error.


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