Local school divisions fail to make AYP

The Charlottesville and Albemarle County school divisions both failed to meet student achievement standards last school year under the federal No Child Left Behind Act, according to state figures released Thursday.

Four of Charlottesville’s nine public schools did not meet the Adequate Yearly Progress benchmarks for 2009-10 — Clark Elementary, Walker Upper Elementary, Buford Middle and Charlottesville High School. The five that made AYP were all elementary schools.

To make AYP, the school divisions and schools had to exceed the pass rate benchmarks of 81 percent for reading and 79 percent for math.

Statewide, only about 9 percent of school divisions made AYP. Sixty percent of schools statewide met the goals, considerably lower than the 71 percent from the previous year, when the standards were slightly lower and some were measured differently.

Six of Albemarle’s 26 schools did not meet AYP benchmarks. The county schools that failed to make AYP are Greer and Woodbrook elementary schools, as well as Burley, Henley, Jack Jouett and Walton middle schools. The Community Public Charter School’s AYP status will be determined at a later date.

At least six county schools failing making AYP in 2009-10 comes as a blow to the division’s educational system, considering only two Albemarle schools failed to meet AYP benchmarks during the 2008-09 school year.

In recent years, a higher percentage of Charlottesville students have failed the federally mandated math and reading exams than students statewide. The pattern was continued during the most recent school year, as 82 percent of city students passed math exams, compared with a statewide pass rate of 88 percent. The gap was even greater for reading exams, with Charlottesville having an 82 percent pass rate, compared with 89 percent statewide.

Albemarle students have consistently had higher pass rates than the state in the past few years. For the most recent school year, Albemarle had a 92 percent pass rate for both reading and math, beating the statewide pass rate by 3 and 4 percentage points, respectively.

The Albemarle school division, as a whole, did not make AYP because too few black and economically disadvantaged students met reading benchmarks. Only 81 percent of black students passed the reading test, one-tenth of a point shy of the benchmark. And 80 percent of economically disadvantaged students passed.

Albemarle County students’ overall results were largely stagnant compared with a year prior. However, declines in some categories were enough to leave several schools short of AYP benchmarks, despite each having made AYP a year prior.

The county’s overall math pass rate went up slightly, but the English pass rate declined by about 1 percentage point.

“We’re going to need to focus on reading, and that’s an area where our community can help us out,” Albemarle school communications coordinator Maury Brown said, adding that students reading outside of school can be vital, and it’s something parents should encourage.

Parent involvement is one of the things helping Murray Elementary School to excel, Brown said. Murray had a 99.2 percent reading pass rate and a 100 percent math pass rate this past school year.

Sutherland Middle School and Cale Elementary School met AYP benchmarks during the 2009-10 academic year after failing to do so a year prior.

“For every school where we had a challenge in an area, we had a school that did exceptionally well in that area. And so, we’re going to be sharing strategies and programs, and learning from the schools that did very well in that area to [help] the schools that need additional growth in that area.”

The latest assessments for the city represent a decline from last year’s results, when only three schools did not make AYP — Clark, Buford and Charlottesville High School.

“We’re disappointed to see that, but again, it doesn’t constitute a trend,” said Laurie McCullough, the division’s director of student achievement and program evaluation. McCullough said although the division’s scores for 2009-10 assessments showed a dip, the schools were on an overall upward trend with pass rates.

“We are seeing steady gains when you look over a longer period of time,” she said.

While the city’s overall math pass rate has been 82 percent for the past two schools years, the reading pass rate dropped to 82 percent in 2009-10, down from 86 percent in 2008-09.

Under No Child Left Behind, students are categorized based on race. There are also categories for students who are economically disadvantaged, have disabilities or have limited English proficiency. When individual demographics of students do not exceed exam pass rate targets, the entire school or division fails to make AYP.

In Charlottesville, for example, students had overall pass rates of 82 percent, respectively, in reading and math. But there were several groups that fell below the individual thresholds for reading and math.

According to the state education department, Charlottesville’s black students had pass rates of 70 percent for reading and math exams. Additionally, students with disabilities had pass rates of 62 percent in reading and 66 percent in math.

Statewide, white students had a 93 percent pass rate in reading, compared with 81 percent for blacks, 81 percent for economically disadvantaged and 85 percent for Hispanics.

The standards for scoring students with disabilities were raised this year, and education officials in June voted to require that, on average, at least 80 percent of students graduate with an advanced or standard diploma within four years for a high school, school division or state to meet the annual benchmarks.

It was the second straight year that Clark Elementary did not make AYP, which means it will be put under “school improvement” status. For Clark, which is part of a state pilot program, the designation means the school will have to provide supplemental educational services — such as tutoring and other free services — beyond the regular school day.

“This pilot program that we’re in was approved on Friday,” McCullough said.

According to city school division figures, 68 percent of Clark students passed the reading exam, and 78 percent passed the math exam.

Five of Charlottesville’s six elementary schools have school-wide Title I programs, meaning the schools get federal funding designed to help low-income children who are behind academically or at risk of falling behind. The funding is based on the number of low-income children in a school, generally those eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. Clark is one of the five.

Both city and county school officials have said they will use the data to help implement individualized plans to improve. School officials are still analyzing specific gains, and areas where improvement is needed, in closing the achievement gap between wealthier white students and lower-income racial minorities.

Brown noted that financial woes have diverted some attention from teachers and administrators “away from their primary mission of teaching and learning.”

“That’s not to say it’s an excuse … but it is to say that when someone is concerned about their job, when an administrator needs to take time away from [that person’s] regular job to look at: ‘How am I going to cut 15 percent out of my budget,’ that’s time and resources that they didn’t have to focus on student learning,” she said.

School divisions in Orange, Madison, Nelson, Buckingham, Fluvanna, Greene and Louisa counties also failed to make AYP for the 2009-10 academic year.