Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) 2006-07

All YCSD Schools Expected to Meet Accreditation Standards
Division & 15 of 18 Schools Make AYP

August 23, 2007 – Based on a review of preliminary data, all York County School Division schools will again meet the state’s accreditation standards. Additionally, the division and 15 schools met federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) standards as a result of student performance on Standards of Learning (SOL) exams taken last spring.

Highlights of student performance include:

• Elementary School
• All 3rd grade math and science pass rates are 92 percent or higher
• Accreditation ratings for English are 90 percent passing or higher in all schools

• Middle School
• Increases in pass rates for 6th grade math were significant, ranging from 27-57 percent
• Increases in 7th grade math pass rates range from 15-22 percent

• High School
• Improvements in writing pass rates were seen in all schools with a pass rate of 94 percent
• Improvements at several schools led to Algebra II pass rates at all schools to be 91 percent or better.

 “YCSD students continue to achieve at high levels on the state’s SOL tests,” Steven R. Staples, Ed.D., division superintendent, said. “And, as AYP pass rates continue to rise, so too does the achievement of our students. Our staff understands that the bar gets a little higher each year, and we are working to meet those new expectations for student performance.”

Three division middle schools – Grafton Middle, Queens Lake Middle and Yorktown Middle – met accreditation standards but did not make AYP. Queens Lake Middle made AYP last year.

 “We knew that middle schools would be a real challenge this year after looking at the state’s new tests last year. While we still have some work to do, we are pleased with the impressive gains our middle school students achieved on the math 6 and math 7 exams,” Staples said. “We will continue to review English and math testing data to make adjustments to our curriculum and offer our students the instruction and support that they need to be successful on the SOL tests.”
 
 Within specific sub-groups of students taking the middle school English SOL exams, Grafton Middle (students identified as disadvantaged) and Yorktown Middle (students identified as disadvantaged and black students) did not make AYP.

Within a specific sub-group of students taking the middle school math SOL exams, Queens Lake Middle (students identified as disadvantaged) did not make AYP.

“Our teachers and school staff will continue to provide student-by-student assistance in both math and English,” Jennifer Parish, Ed.D., chief academic officer, said. “We assign additional reading staff to the middle schools and offer several opportunities for students to receive supplementary instructional support.

“We also have a writing committee in place that will recommend a new K-12 writing program. We anticipate that this effort will improve our writing instruction throughout the division by offering a consistent program, clear expectations and common assessment tools,” Parish said.

“In math, our students made significant strides over last year. We put in place a number of programs and worked with administrators to provide our teachers with additional training to ensure student success.

“We also made sure our teachers were able to cover all of the subject-area content that was included in the math exams, provided teachers and students with new review materials and gave teachers the opportunity to create collaborative lesson plans to share best practices with one another,” Parish said.                                                                                                                    
The York County School Division met 235 of 239 achievement targets as required under the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act's Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) benchmarks. The York County School Division met all of their annual measurable objectives and made AYP.

Elementary Schools

Middle Schools

High Schools

Division

Charter School: Because less than 50 students attend York River Academy, the division will submit a plan to the state to determine whether the school met AYP.