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Two Culpeper schools make the grade
The Virginia Department of Education has reported that two of Culpeper’s eight schools made Adequate Yearly Progress, or AYP, for the 2008-09 school year. The two are Farmington Elementary School and Culpeper County High School.
AYP is a measure of school success set by the federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001. AYP uses scores from, but does not replace, Virginia’s accreditation system which is based on Virginia’s Standards of Learning (SOLs). The results were based on tests taken in the 2007-08 school year; however, SOL accreditation results have not yet been announced by the Virginia Department of Education for 2008-09.
Schools that receive federal funding for Title I targeted assistance and have not made AYP in consecutive years are in ‘public school choice’ status for the 2008-09 school year. This includes Pearl Sample Elementary School and Sycamore Park Elementary School.
Of the schools that did not make AYP this year, several narrowly missed the required benchmarks. Emerald Hill and Pearl Sample both met 28 of 29 requirements while A.G. Richardson and Culpeper Middle School met 27 of 29 requirements.
The big AYP success story this year were at Culpeper County High School and Culpeper Middle School, said Acting Superintendent Larry Carter.
“AYP requires us to hit an increasingly difficult target,” Dr. Carter said, “and the high school had subgroups scoring as high as 88 percent in reading and 85 percent in math. CCHS showed notable improvements in the test scores of students with limited English proficiency and students with disabilities.”
CMS "wowed us" with their scores as well, Dr. Carter added. “Although the school did not make AYP, they showed positive growth in 10 subgroup areas.”
For example, at CMS the English scores for students with Limited English Proficiency went from 37 to 64 and from 59 to 64 for Hispanic students. Math scores for the Hispanic subgroup rose from 49 to 61 and for LEP students from 35 to 54.
AYP is also calculated for the division as a whole. Culpeper’s division status for 2008-09 stands at “Did not make AYP,” having met 28 of 29 benchmarks. In order to make AYP, a school must meet 29 benchmarks for participation in testing, achievement in English and math, and either attendance or science (elementary and middle school) or graduation (high school). Missing a single benchmark may result in a school or division not making AYP.
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