Lassiter and Kell Achieve AYP

Northeast Cobb's Lassiter and Kell high schools made Adequate Yearly Progress this past school year, but Sprayberry did not, according to a report the Georgia Department of Education released Thursday.*

All nine elementary schools and the four middle schools in Northeast Cobb Patch kept their “distinguished” status for making AYP, a measure of whether schools and districts achieve annual academic and participation targets under the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

, , , , , , Mountain View, and elementary schools all met AYP for the ninth consecutive year.

, and middle schools also achieved AYP for the ninth consecutive year, and made it for the eighth year in a row.

Eight of the 30 Cobb County schools that didn’t meet AYP are high schools, a statewide trend. Only 30 percent of the state’s high schools achieved AYP in 2011 after 40.9 percent made it in 2010 and 55.8 percent in 2009.

Last year 17 Cobb schools missed AYP targets.

The required graduation rate rose from 80 percent to 85 percent for high schools to make AYP, and that change was enough to block many schools.

The required graduation rate will be 100 percent across the country in 2014.

More Cobb schools may meet the new standard and thus achieve AYP when summer graduations are factored into revised reports to be submitted to the state this fall.

Overall, Cobb students met 95 percent of the AYP criteria, or 77 of the 81 measurements. That is up from 70 of 78 criteria in 2009-10. 

“Unfortunately, the first thing most people will see is that more of our schools did not make Adequate Yearly Progress this year, but that doesn't tell the whole story,” new Cobb Superintendent Michael Hinojosa said in a statement.

“The reality is that under the No Child Left Behind Act the targets jumped significantly this year, and yet overall we met 95 percent of the indicators, which is higher than last year, 85 percent of our students met or exceeded standards, and we showed significant improvement in the performance of key student groups.”

He added that unless the law changes, “the targets are going to continue to increase, and more and more schools will not make AYP.”

Correction: Northeast Cobb Patch reported earlier that all three high schools missed AYP. Lassiter and Kell did make AYP; only Sprayberry did not. We apologize for the error.