Published Friday, July 25, 2008
17 of 27 Coweta schools meet AYP
The Times-Herald
For the third time since the federal No Child Left Behind Act was implemented, the Coweta County School System has not achieved "adequate yearly progress" (AYP), according to reports released Friday by the Georgia Department of Education.
Coweta joins 142 out of 184 school systems statewide that did not may AYP this year. In contrast, the neighboring school systems of Heard and Fayette counties have made AYP for three or more consecutive years.
Overall, more than two-thirds of Georgia's schools made AYP this year.
In addition to the Coweta County School System not making AYP, 10 of its 27 schools did not individually achieve the goals established under NCLB.
Schools that did not make AYP
Those 10 include all six of Coweta school system's middle schools and four of the 18 elementary schools. The middle schools are Arnall, East Coweta, Evans, Lee, Madras and Smokey Road. The four elementary schools are Ruth Hill, Welch, Western and White Oak.
Of these 10 schools, Coweta Schools officials are "confident" that six will drop off the list once Criterion-Referenced Competency Test (CRCT) re-test scores are tabulated in September, according to Wayne Outlaw, assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction.
The school system expects that four of this initial 10 will remain on the "did not meet AYP" list after taking the re-tests into consideration. They are Arnall Middle School, East Coweta Middle School, Ruth Hill Elementary School and Western Elementary School.
"With a couple of exceptions everyone that did not make AYP this year was because of the math CRCTs," said Dean Jackson, Coweta Schools public information officer.
About one-third of Coweta's eighth-graders and one-fourth of its fifth-graders failed the reading and math CRCTs this year, driving more than 1,200 to summer school and retesting this past June. About 44 to 50 percent of those who retested passed, according to Christi Hildebrand, Coweta's testing and school improvement coordinator.
While the re-tests only helped less than half of the students who failed the initial CRCTs, Coweta Schools Superintendent Blake Bass said the re-tests did help to remove most of the schools off the "did not meet AYP" list.
"With the re-tests, six schools will be coming off the AYP so it did help us there," he said. "Doing an analysis just on the surface, I know what that tells me is that the students got the material during the school year and, for some reason, whether it was test phobia or some environmental reason ... they did not do well on the original test."
CRCT results are one of three "indicators" that determine whether a school makes AYP. The others are test participation and attendance for elementary and middle schools or graduation rates for high schools.
Under NCLB, if a certain percentage of students, or a particular subgroup of students, doesn't make the academic performance standard as measured by the test results, the system or school doesn't make AYP.
Subgroups are divided racially, economically and by learning disability. In Coweta, those subgroups are white, black, Hispanic, English language learners, students with disabilities and students who are economically disadvantaged. In addition, some students are classified into more than one group, Hildebrand explained.
So if one of these subgroups doesn't achieve the goal established for that grade level in reading, math or English language arts, the school doesn't make AYP. The same applies to the school system as a whole. Outlaw noted the system concentrates its improvement efforts on the individual schools.
Overall this year, Coweta School System didn't make AYP because of the low testing scores recorded by students with disabilities.
Why they didn't make AYP
Arnall did not make AYP because of low passing rates on the math CRCTs by special education students.
East Coweta Middle School did not make AYP because too many special ed, black students and students from low-income families failed the math CRCTs and too many special ed students failed the reading and English/language arts CRCTs.
Ruth Hill did not make AYP this year because too many black students failed the math CRCTs.
Western did not make AYP this year because too many black and low-income students failed the math CRCTs.
Outlaw explained the school system has "Connections" classes in place to help students struggling with any of these key subjects in middle school. These slots, normally reserved for elective courses, are instead used for remedial classes by students who are targeted as needing them.
In addition, Coweta's three high schools will also start offering "math support" classes that will also count as an elective credit to help struggling students preview and review math content. The courses will run concurrently with the new Math I-IV curriculum to be introduced to high schoolers this year. Entering freshman, who need the remediation, will be offered Math I one day and "math support" the next day.
"Needs improvement" schools
Under NCLB, when a school fails to meet AYP for two consecutive years, it's classified as a "needs improvement" or NI school, and there are different NI levels depending on how many consecutive years the school has failed to meet AYP. In addition, there are different consequences for each consecutive year on the NI list.
This year, under a "differentiated accountability" agreement reached with the U.S. Department of Education this summer, Georgia schools that are classified as NI-2 or failed to meet AYP for three consecutive years must now offer free tutoring in addition to the choice of transferring to another public school that did make AYP. Before, parents were only given the choice of transferring to another school.
Four Coweta schools are on the NI list. They are Arnall, East Coweta Middle School, Evans Middle School and Welch Elementary.
Arnall, East Coweta Middle and Evans are all NI-2 schools. Welch is an NI-1 school.
School officials expect Welch to be removed from the NI list once CRCT re-tests scores are tabulated, but students will still be able to take advantage of the tutoring.
"In September, when the new scores come out, Welch will come off, but we can't just jerk away the supplemental services choices," Outlaw said.
While the tutoring will be provided free to students at the NI schools, transportation to tutoring sites or the new school has to be arranged by the parent of the student unless the student is choosing to transfer out of a Title 1 school -- a school that receives additional federal funding to assist its high percentage of children from low-income families.
Evans is a Title 1 school, thus the parents of students at this NI-2 school (failed to meet AYP for three consecutive years) can request a transfer to either Madras or Lee Middle Schools, both of which made AYP this year, and have their child's transportation provided by the school system.
Parents of students attending Arnall and East Coweta, also NI-2 schools, can opt for free tutoring or a school transfer, but they will need to provide the transportation.
Arnall parents who choose to transfer their child out of the school will have a choice to enroll their child at Lee Middle School.
East Coweta Middle School parents will have the choice to enroll their student at Smokey Road.
Or the parents can choose to have their students stay at their respective schools and request neither of the services, Outlaw noted.
Transfer or Tutoring
If a parent wants a transfer out of the school, they need to keep in mind that the spots at Madras, Lee and Smokey Road are limited. Outlaw explained that the requests will be ranked and students will be placed in the new school according to their needs. The students who need to raise their CRCT scores the most will rank higher in need than others.
"A student who made 650 will more likely get a spot than someone with a 795," he said.
If parents wish to transfer from the three middle schools on the NI-2 list, they must submit a transfer request form to Kristy Chaffin at the school system's Central Office on 167 Werz Industrial Drive by Aug. 4. For information, call Chaffin at 770-254-2800.
The form is online on Coweta Schools Web site, www.cowetaschools.org. Parents can also pick up the form at the Central Office.
If parents are interested in tutoring, the state approves a list of providers each year and they offer their services to the school systems. Every school will have a list of available providers at the school, and parents can request the services within 45 days after school starts.
Evans usually schedules a provider "fair" each year, according to Hildebrand.
Only parents of children attending Evans will be notified individually of the school's AYP status and their options.
Parents of other non-AYP schools are notified either via the Coweta Schools' Web site, school newsletters or Web sites or media outlets.