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Washington Township Schools are pleased with improvements reflected in this year’s Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) report, despite the flawed grading system that was released.
ADEQUATE YEARLY PROGRESS FOR MSD OF WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP
Washington Township Schools are pleased with improvements reflected in this year’s Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) report despite the flawed grading system that was released.
Vic Smith stated Aug. 29th at the State House, “On this historic day, it is appropriate to review the steps that have brought us to the announcement today of letter grades for all schools. On April 30, 2010, 57 people testified on the proposed rule change to give schools letter grades. Of those 57 speakers, 56 opposed the change. One major concern of the opponents was the link between the proposed letter grades and the federal grading system called Adequate Yearly Progress. Excellent schools in Indiana deserving an A would get a C if they did not pass the seriously flawed federal measure. Six days later on May 5, 2010, the State Board approved the rule change “with the expectation that the Board and Department immediately will move to: 1) separate AYP determinations from state accountability determinations; and 2) begin the process to revise the criteria used to place schools in school improvement and performance categories. Sadly, nearly 16 months later, the separation of AYP determinations from state accountability determinations has not occurred. Many excellent schools that deserve an “A” or “B” will be given a “C” today because they were tripped up by flawed federal rules that Secretary Duncan has said will trip up 82% of the nation’s schools.”
Despite the average letter grade of “C” assigned by the Department of Education, Washington Township Superintendent Dr. Nikki Woodson says “In Washington Township, we are focused on improvement of each child’s academic progress in our schools. We have implemented International Baccalaureate district wide which is a world-wide rigorous framework for teaching & learning. We know that in order for our students to compete globally in tomorrow’s world that we must transform teaching and learning. We are in the midst of that and having tremendous success.”
Here are some Washington Township Schools district highlights:
The district’s AYP score improved from passing 31of 33 (2010) categories to 32 of 33 categories (2011) passing. Both the LEP English Performance and the Hispanic English Performance made it by Safe Harbor this year. Our new category not meeting the benchmark is Overall English Performance but we are only off the benchmark by 2.1%.
- Allisonville Elementary increased its AYP Categories of participation from 22 in 2010 to 25 this year and was able to make all categories in AYP.
- Nora Elementary improved enough in Hispanic and LEP English Performance to make AYP in those categories for this year.
- Crooked Creek Elementary has maintained passing the AYP benchmark in all 21 categories.
- Spring Mill Elementary made great gains in Special Education Language Arts, which wastheir only category not making AYP last year.
- North Central High School went from passing only 5 of 29 categories in 2010 to passing 16 of 30 in 2011 making the greatest gains in mathematics and passing all Math
benchmarks. The majority of categories not making AYP at NC revolve around the number of students taking the End of Course Assessments by the end of tenth grade.
