Surry Business

All four schools in the Mount Airy City Schools system showed adequate yearly progress (AYP) toward meeting the federal No Child Left Behind Act goals in 2006-07. Eleven of the 16 schools in the Surry County Schools system also showed adequate yearly progress and two of the three Elkin City schools achieved AYP, according to preliminary data released Friday by the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction. Schools may challenge the preliminary data before the State Board of Education verifies and approves a final report in September.

Schools that met the goals in the Surry County Schools system are Cedar Ridge Elementary, Copeland Elementary, Dobson Elementary, East Surry High, Flat Rock Elementary, Franklin Elementary, Mountain Park Elementary, Meadowview Middle, Pilot Mountain Middle, Shoals Elementary, and White Plains Elementary, according to a news release from Jennifer Scott, director of professional development and communications. “The Surry Early College High School of Design is not included in the calculations for 2006-2007 at this time,” she added, “because they are a special status school as they did not have a 10th grade.”

Elkin Middle School and Elkin High School both met their goals. Elkin Elementary achieved 17 of 19 target goals, according to the preliminary report.

The Mount Airy City Schools made a 180-degree turnaround from 2005-06 when none of the four schools — Tharrington and Jones elementaries, Jones, Mount Airy Middle School and Mount Airy High School — reached all of their AYP target goals, the Winston-Salem Journal reported.

“There’s just been a really strong focus on the data,” Judy Walker, the Mount Airy school system’s director of accountability, told the newspaper. She said the school system used curriculum maps and organization and planning charts to guide student instruction and record progress.

“We’re extremely pleased with our preliminary results,” Walker said. “We’re going to continue to focus on using the data to make decisions.”

Under the federal No Child Left Behind Act, Scott writes, each school must show progress toward goals set by the state. In North Carolina, these goals include the percentage of students performing at grade level or better as measured by the state’s testing program. North Carolina’s goal is for 100 percent of all students to be proficient by 2013-14.

In 2006-2007, the state’s goals for grades 3-8 are 76.7 percent proficient in reading and 65.8 percent proficient in mathematics. For grade 10, the goals are 35.4 percent proficient in reading and 70.8 percent in mathematics.

Other AYP goals include elementary and middle school (grades 3-8) attendance rates and high school graduation rates.

“Adequate Yearly Progress is a goal for each school overall,” Scott writes, “but also for each subgroup of students in the school. For example, if a child’s school has four subgroups of students numbering at least 40 each, each of these four groups must reach the Adequate Yearly Progress goal in order for the school to be considered successful under the federal law. In addition to the School as a Whole, possible subgroups that a particular school could have are: White, Black, Hispanic, Native American, Asian/Pacific Islander, Multiracial, Limited English Proficient, Students with Disabilities, and Economically Disadvantaged Students.”