Number of Pee Dee schools meeting AYP goals falls

By Shireese Bell
Morning News Reporter
Published: October 1, 2008

The number of Pee Dee schools meeting Adequate Yearly Progress goals under the federal No Child Left Behind Act decreased, despite showing improvement on the Palmetto Achievement Challenge Test.

Initially it appeared 16 Pee Dee schools met AYP goals this year, according to data released Monday to the media by the state Department of Education.

That number would have been down from 35 schools the previous year.

State officials, though, withdrew the high school scores to re-examine them and plan to re-release them at a later date.

Those elementary and middle schools that met goals were, by county:

• Chesterfield: Plainview and Ruby elementary schools.
• Darlington: Carolina Elementary School.
• Dillon: South Elementary School in Dillon School District 2.
• Florence: Carver and Royall elementary schools in Florence School District 1; Palmetto Youth Academy, a charter school in Florence; and J.C. Lynch Elementary School in Florence School District 3.
• Marlboro: Marlboro School of Discovery.
• Williamsburg: Anderson Primary School and Battery Park and St. Mark elementary schools.

The NCLB Act requires schools and districts divide performance data into several student subcategories that include ethnicity, special education, poverty and English as a second language.

The more demographic categories a school has, the more goals it must meet.

The NCLB results rely on the state’s PACT scores to determine performance ratings for elementary and middle schools, while high schools use data from the High School Assessment Program or exit exams.

A new testing system called the Palmetto Assessment of State Standards, or PASS, will replace the PACT in 2009.

Members of the General Assembly voted last session to replace PACT, which marked the first significant change to the states Education Accountability Act since it was approved by the General Assembly 10 years ago.

If a school or school district misses even one objective, that means the school or district will not meet AYP.

Elementary and middle schools also can miss AYP if their overall attendance rate is lower than 94 percent.

High schools miss AYP if graduation rates decline from the previous year.

Olanta Elementary School in Florence 3 is one of many examples of how a school can show improvement on state tests, but fail to meet federal goals.

This is the first year Olanta Elementary failed to meet AYP. The school missed three out of 13 objectives. Those objectives included math targets for all students, black students, and free/reduced-price lunch students.

Olanta’s 2008 PACT scores in those same objective areas improved, however, according to data recently released by the education department.

All students scoring Proficient or Advanced on PACT increased from 18.9 percent in 2007 to 28.8 percent in 2008.

Targets for elementary and middle schools have increased more than 50 percent, according to a press release issued by the state department.

High school targets are expected to increase next year.

“Unless NCLB’s rating system is revised to incorporate a more common sense approach, the danger is that this law will lose all credibility with the public,” state Education Superintendent Dr. Jim Rex said in a press release issued by the education department. “That would really be disappointing because its goals are so admirable.”

The state’s targets for AYP are rapidly increasing to meet NCLB’s requirement that all students score Proficient on state English language arts and math tests by 2014, according to the release. Each state is able to set its own proficiency definition under No Child Left Behind.

Rex said in the release that if the law isn’t revised, nearly all of the nation’s schools will eventually face federal sanctions because they will not be able to reach the federal goal of 100 percent proficiency by 2014.

“I’m not saying that South Carolina schools are performing at the levels where they should be performing. All of us know that we need to improve,” he said. “But when schools do improve, it’s important that our accountability systems recognize that improvement rather than ignore it.”

On the Web

S.C. Department of Education: http://www.ed.sc.gov