All City of Decatur Schools, Including Renfroe, Make AYP
Decatur Metro | July 27, 2010 | 9:38 amCity Schools of Decatur found out late last week that all schools in the district had made Adequate Yearly Progress as defined under the Federal “No Child Left Behind Act”. This is the second straight year that all CSD schools have achieved this mark.
However, the classification was especially notable this year as it was originally believed that based on passing rates, Renfroe Middle School would not make AYP.
However, thanks to an appeal by the Georgia Department of Education to the federal government regarding the test results of Students with Disabilities, Renfroe passed. CSD’s Bruce Roaden was good enough to boil it down for us…
The Georgia Department of Education appealed to the federal government requesting “interim federal flexibility” for the Students with Disabilities (SWD) subgroup so that schools and systems that fail to make AYP based solely on the performance of their SWD subgroup, will receive a mathematical adjustment and thus be able to make AYP. This amendment was denied and then the DOE appealed (CSD was asked to and did support the DOE’s appeal) and the amendment was accepted.
Without the flexibility rule RMS would not have made AYP.
The statewide picture is looking ever more bleak, as federal standards get harder to meet with each passing year. According to the AJC, two-thirds of all Georgia high schools didn’t make AYP in 2010 and 29% of all public schools in the state failed to meet the federal standards, as requirements for graduation rates and passing rates continue to tick up. A random mention in the Fayette County News stated that in the Atlanta metropolitan area, only Decatur and Marietta saw all of their schools pass AYP.
If interested, the AJC has a searchable database of the 2010 AYP results for each public school in the state.
I would like the candidates for GA State School Superintendent to demonstrate that:
1. They “exceed expectations” on the 8th grade CRCT
2. They have made adequate yearly progress in their current positions with all their employees meeting or exceeding expectations.
This requirement could be extended to the governor’s race too.
Agreed! Let’s extend it to all public officials.
Furthermore, they need to demonstrate improvement with employees who are provided to them from a specific geographic area, and they are not allowed to fire/expell any of these employees for not doing their work, not showing up on time, and they must accept any new employee who shows up.
We Are The Champions!
I’ve paid my dues -
Time after time -
I’ve done my sentence
But committed no crime -
And bad mistakes
I’ve made a few
I’ve had my share of sand kicked in my face -
But I’ve come through
We are the champions – my friends
And we’ll keep on fighting – till the end -
We are the champions -
We are the champions
No time for losers
‘Cause we are the champions – of the world -
I’ve taken my bows
And my curtain calls -
You brought me fame and fortune and everything that goes with it
-
I thank you all -
But it’s been no bed of roses
No pleasure cruise -
I consider it a challenge before the whole human race -
And I ain’t gonna lose -
We are the champions – my friends
And we’ll keep on fighting – till the end -
We are the champions -
We are the champions
No time for losers
‘Cause we are the champions – of the world -
DeKalb County alum here and BOTH my stellar middle and high schools (Shamrock and Druid Hills) FAILED TO MAKE AYP. Considering that both schools are part of the IB program, which isn’t exactly easy to become part of (it literally takes years), and Druid Hills is one of the best high schools in the entire county in performance and class offerings, something smells fishy to me. My mom’s a teacher AT Shamrock and says the math is far too difficult even for higher-level and gifted students. Her students have to test at grade level though they learn at a lower level due to learning disabilities and other issues. This is completely unfair and a wrongheaded way to measure educational progress. We’ve got Dubya to thank for all this nonsense with No Child Left Behind.
#justsayin
Emma, I completely agree with you. The NCLB policies are complete bunk. We’ve been going at education upside-down for years in this country.