Eight Clarke County Schools come up short on state performance report, may improve later this fall

Eight fell short of state and federal academic standards under the No Child Left Behind Law this year, according to a report released last week by the state Board of Education.

The report measures whether schools across the state were able to meet Adequate Yearly Progress, which is made up of student's performance on standardized tests in math and reading. Schools must also maintain high student participation on tests and keep attendance and graduation rates up to make AYP.

This summer's report doesn't count students' scores on retests. Several Clarke County schools may eventually meet AYP standards once the retests are factored into each school's overall performance later this fall.

Last year, 13 schools made AYP over the summer, and after retests, two additional schools met the standard.

This year, 12 schools made AYP on the first release of performance data.

and high schools, all four middle schools and Alps Road and elementary schools did not make AYP during the first round, according to the Georgia Department of Education report.

While some schools didn't make AYP, the results do show improvement, according to Clarke County Schools Superintendent Philip Lanoue.

Two years ago, 81 percent of students in grades 3 through 8 met or exceeded state standards on a state reading test, while this year, 87 percent passed the test. On the state math test, 79 percent of students passed – up from 65.4 percent in 2009, according to Lanoue.

More students are exceeding standards than ever before, he said. Last year, about 32 percent of the district's students exceeded the state math standard – up from 22 percent two years ago.

“We are making progress, and we've made strong gains in mathematics, we made good gains in reading and language arts, and we've increased number of students that have exceeded standards – those are all good indicators,” Lanoue said. “The question is with the AYP piece, we just have to keep up each (student) subgroup, that's what keeps us definitely working hard.”

To make AYP, schools must also show that specific subgroups - such as minority, economically disadvantaged and disabled students – are passing tests.

Several schools that didn't make AYP did so because of a single subgroup by just a handful of students, Lanoue said.

“If you look at the charts, we missed (AYP) by one subgroup or two," Lanoue said. "We're off a couple of students, so we'll see what happens … I know some of our schools will make it, I just can't say until it actually happens, but I suspect we will have some good news, even for those that didn't make it will be pretty close.”

The biggest area of concern, or room for improvement, was in fourth and sixth-grade math, he said.

“Those were our two lowest performing areas, and I think that really impacted the most in terms of AYP, and we've just got to look if it was a curricular issue or what we've got to do differently and that is the focus we're going to have this year.”

The school district will also continue targeting another huge AYP hurdle – the graduation rate, Lanoue said.

This year 68 percent of students were graduated from Clarke County Schools – an accomplishment considering that just four years ago, the graduation rate was 58 percent. While still more students may graduate after the summer, Lanoue doesn't expect the graduations rate to come close to the state requirement of 85 percent, he said.

“We're still dealing with dropouts from three to four years ago,” Lanoue said. “We're just still impacted by those that dropped out several years ago.”

Clarke County wasn't the only school district that had difficulties meeting more challenging AYP goals this year. Nearly 40 percent of all schools across the state failed to make AYP this year, according to the state Department of Education.

The number of schools that fell on a list of needs-improvement schools because they haven't made AYP in several years grew to 17.5 percent – the highest since 2004, according to the Georgia Department of Education.

Clarke Central and Cedar Shoals high schools, , and middle schools are all on the needs improvement list.

Schools that fail to make AYP face a range of sanctions, including having to offer tutoring and school choice. At more severe levels, schools are given the option of replacing staff or establishing a performance contract that's closely monitored by the Department of Education.