County, state miss AYP

By KIPP HANLEY
jhanley@insidenova.com

Both Virginia and Prince William County Public School failed to meet federal Adequate Yearly Progress standards according to a release sent out Thursday by the Virginia Department of Education.

Twenty-eight of the 82 Prince William schools — including half of the high schools — did not make AYP, an increase of four schools from last year.

High schools Osbourn Park, Gar-Field, Freedom, Woodbridge and Stonewall Jackson missed AYP while six middle schools — Godwin, Marsteller, Stonewall, Graham Park, Benton and Parkside failed for at least the third consecutive year to meet federal standards.

Title I elementary schools Bel Air, River Oaks and Neabsco did not meet AYP for the second straight year and will have to offer a transfer option to another public school within the division.

The city of Manassas fared even worse with seven of their eight schools failing to achieve AYP. Only Round Elementary School met federal standards.

Manassas Park Elementary and High School failed to achieve AYP while Cougar Elementary and Manassas Park Middle School met AYP.

Overall, only 12 of the 132 school divisions in Virginia made AYP, a decrease of 48 from last year.

The Commonwealth of Virginia received permission from the U.S. Department of Education to maintain the 2009-10 benchmarks of 81 percent for reading and 79 percent for mathematics. However, higher standards for graduation and a change in special education testing led to a total of 128 schools not meeting AYP, according to the VDOE release.

The Board of Education voted in June 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 the state to make AYP. Forty-one high schools and nine school divisions missed the mark this year solely because of the new graduation AYP benchmark.

The bar for students with disabilities was raised in February with the U.S. Department of Education decision to discontinue flexibility that allowed states to supplement the pass rates of disabled students. The flexibility had been allowed since 2005 in recognition of limited testing options for some students with disabilities.

Eighty-seven schools and 15 school divisions did not make AYP this year as a result of the change in calculating pass rates for students with disabilities. Prince William met all of the 29 benchmarks except for the performance of students with disabilities. Consequently, the school division did not make AYP.

Superintendent Steven L. Walts focused on the positive despite the failure to meet the federal standards laid out by the No Child Left Behind Act. Of the 55 reporting elementary schools, 38 showed increased student pass rates in mathematics.

Twenty-three schools had pass rates above 90 percent in reading, and 33 had pass rates greater than 90 percent in math. Twelve reporting middle schools showed an increased student pass rate in mathematics while 11 increased in reading. At the high school level, all 10 had pass rates greater than 80 percent in reading, with six above 90 percent.

“We continue to see NCLB and AYP as an important tool for helping us focus on all students,” Walts stated in a press release Thursday. “While meeting the goal becomes increasingly more difficult due to the benchmarks being moved up over time, we continue to embrace the challenge.”

Staff writer Kipp Hanley can be reached at 703-530-3904.