A cold, hard look at District 11’s Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) report looks like students in the Anoka-Hennepin School District aren’t making the grade.

With 24 of District 11’s 49 schools not making AYP, it might seem education in local schools doesn’t quite add up to success for the 40,500 students who learn their reading, writing and arithmetic in the state’s largest school district.

But District 11 officials’ take on the AYP report offer a glimpse into the foundation of the failure.

According to Communication Specialist Sarah Schwartz, many of the district’s AYP failures came in special education.

That, Schwartz said, reflects changing numbers in the Minnesota Department of Education testing system.

“The criteria has been narrowed to identify which special ed. students can be given the regular testing (with accommodations) as opposed to taking the alternative testing,” Schwartz said.

Schwartz said that in past years, more of District 11’s special education students were allowed to take the alternative testing.

This year, only 1 percent of the total number of special education students were allowed to receive points from alternative assessments, therefore, more special education students were given regular testing.

Schwartz said that the district’s director of research, evaluation and testing (Johnna Rohmer-Hirt) has stated that the federal government says that for the next 2 percent of special education students, the regular testing is not appropriate.

According to a document released by the Minnesota Department of Education late Tuesday evening, “The increase of schools not making AYP is the result of only slight improvements in proficiency and the increases in the reading and math AYP targets required to meet the federal government’s requirement of 100 percent proficiency by 2014.”

“AYP can be used as a vital tool for moving forward toward that goal,” said Minnesota Department of Education Commissioner Alice Seagren.

“I think it’s more of a problem with the test than it is with the students,” Schwartz said.

Teachers throughout the school district continue to use measures of academic progress to identify areas in which students need the most help, she said.

“Our teachers are doing – and will continue to do – everything they can to provide the best education for all of our students, to provide individualized instruction and to ensure success,” Schwartz said.

AYP is part of the federal No Child Left Behind Act and provides a measure of year-to-year student achievement on the statewide assessments in reading and math.

AYP measures schools, school districts and the state as a whole, marking progress toward the goal of 100 percent proficiency on Minnesota Academic Standards in reading and math.

The state department of education calls AYP a “minimum standard of proficiency that a school or district must achieve each year on the annual assessments and related academic indicators.”

Schwartz described the staged response activated by the education department when adequate yearly progress is not achieved:

• A warning is issued the first year the school does not make AYP, but no sanctions are implemented.

• The school is identified in “school choice” stage after failing to make AYP for two consecutive years. Students attending a school labeled “school choice” may attend another District 11 school, with transportation provided by Title 1 federal funds.

• A school failing to make AYP for three consecutive years is directed to provide supplemental services, i.e. outside tutoring is provided for students requesting those services. Tutoring is paid for with Title 1 funds.

• A school failing to make AYP for four consecutive years undergoes corrective action. This means the district and/or the state can take action to change the school, either by dissolving the school, restructuring it as a magnet school or a charter school or directing new hiring of teachers and staff serving that school.

“None of our schools have ever reached that point, so we really don’t know what’s involved in that stage,” Schwartz said.

Of the 24 District 11 schools not making AYP, only Franklin Elementary School is noted on the department of education’s “in need of improvement” list.

Franklin’s “in need of improvement” status is “school choice,” and state education department officials listed Franklin as such when the school failed to make AYP in 2006 and 2007.

Franklin did make AYP this year (2008).

“They stay at the ‘school choice’ level of sanction until they make AYP two consecutive years,” Schwartz said.

Schools labeled “in need of improvement” must notify all the parents of the children attending that school.

AYP is gauged in math and reading test scores. Each year, schools and school districts are required to test 95 percent of all students in grades three through eight and grade 10 in reading, and grades three through eight and grade 11 in math.

Testing results are reported for all students and for eight subgroups: white, black, Hispanic, Asian/Pacific Islander, American Indian, English language learners, students with disabilities and economically disadvantaged (as determined by participation in free and reduced price lunch).

According to the Minnesota Department of Education, the 2008 results show that 983 of the state’s schools made AYP; 937 did not.

In 2007, 1,191 schools made AYP; 727 did not.

In 2006, 1,405 schools made AYP; 483 did not.

Schwartz, speaking on behalf of District 11’s teaching staff, said, “This (the AYP testing) is only one test on one day. It doesn’t give the complete picture.

“We have many, many students who are achieving beyond expectations and excelling academically.”

To learn more about AYP testing, visit www.education.state.mn.us .

Sue Austreng is at sue.austreng@ecm-inc.com.This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
 
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