AYP: Are You Perfect? By: Jalynn Speck, Linda Oller, and Jill Polsley

Where did Adequate Yearly Progress come from?  Started with ESEA in 1965  Culminates more than four decades  1st set of objectives were to be reached in This was stated in  When George W. Bush took office in 2000, he put NCLB in as a priority for approval  Became a major topic in Washington in May of 2001  On January 8, 2002, NCLB became a law

 NCLB requires AYP to be reported by each state (Building, District and State level)  Focus on Reading and Math  The data collected by race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, gender, disability status, English proficiency, and migrant status is put on the Report Card for each building, district, and state.  Funding depends on AYP Report Card  Report Card is published each fall and is the best place to get performance information

Is AYP attainable?

Pros of AYP  Monitors educational systems for public accountability  Evaluates the effectiveness of instructional practices  Measures student achievement  Evaluates students’ mastery of skills

 Provides information to better identify instructional practices  Every child is counted in NCLB so schools are responsible for making sure every child is learning  Supports early literacy through the Early Reading First initiative  Gives options to students and parents enrolled in schools failing to meet AYP

Cons of AYP  Tests aren’t the only way to gauge a student’s knowledge  State by state comparisons are not revealing due to the wide variations in state standards and the tests to which AYP is based  Each state calculates AYP differently so how are states comparable to each other  AYP performance can look very different within states  Some groups of students don’t have as much impact on whether a school makes AYP  Some kids don’t count toward whether their subgroup made AYP

 Schools that might make AYP have to pass another indicator or they will be identified as failing  Indicators of school performance are not accurate or viable  Testing is not coupled with plans and funding to remedy problems that might be detected by the testing. Instead, a system of increasing punishments is provided to take away resources of schools which exhibit failing test scores.  71% have reported having reduced instructional time in at least one other subject to make more time for reading and mathematics  After-school programs are neglected  Setting the stage for the eventual privatization of the public system

 Focusing on improving the average student’s education may ignore individual differences between students, and potentially harm both special and gifted education programs  ESL students are expected to take the same tests and show proficiency equal to their English speaking peers  Focuses on core classes and removes funding from music programs, art programs, etc.  Teaching to the test, not teaching for learning  Gives future teachers little creativity in the teaching process  NCLB has escalated pressure on teachers to a stressful level, negatively affecting staff morale  Delayed feedback

Is it working?  Nation’s Report Card in July 2005, stated that achievement in reading and math are at all time highs and achievement gap is closing  4 th graders who learned their fundamental math skills increased by 235,000

Basketball Meets AYP