What is AYP?
AYP is one of the cornerstones of the federal No Child Left
Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB). It is an annual measure of student
participation and achievement of statewide assessments and
other academic indicators. Accountability is key to NCLB
in the state of Georgia, each local school district, and
each individual school will be held accountable for the academic
success of students. The federal law requires that each state
set high academic standards and implement an extensive student
testing program which is aligned with standards and which
measures students' achievement based on the standards. AYP
requires schools to meet standards in three areas: Test Participation
(for both Mathematics and Reading/English Language Arts),
Academic Performance (for both Mathematics and Reading/English
Language Arts), and a Second Indicator. AYP holds each local
school district and each individual school accountable for
the academic success of students. AYP comprises one component
of Georgia's Single Statewide Accountability System (SSAS).
How do schools or school districts make AYP?
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 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, that
school districts and schools must achieve within time frames
specified in law in order to meet the 100% proficiency goal.
These levels of improvement are known as Annual Measurable Objectives
(AMO) to ensure that all student groups, schools, school districts,
and the State as a whole reach this goal by 2013-2014. |
