Quote:
Originally Posted by AGDee
ETA: We had at least one district in Michigan who did not meet their AYP last year because to meet the AYP, they have to show improvement. If you have 98% of the kids in your district already meeting the standard, it's nearly impossible to increase that number because of the ELL and sped kids who cannot do any better no matter what.
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It's possible that this district didn't make enough progress with their ELL and special education students because sub groups do count. (If all groups had to be at 75% passing, and the ELL kids weren't, the district could fail.)
However, it's completely false that your overall rate has to go up each year. If your passing rate remains above the increasing required pass rates in all areas, you will be fine. A district at 98% in all its subgroups won't be "needs improvement" until the very end of the increases: it could not have failed to AYP in the past for this reason.
I think this is another case where what's getting said about NCLB and what actually happened don't match.
ETA: Carnation, I agree that we won't ever have all the kids at grade level if we define grade level accurately, at least. But I think we could be doing better than we have been if we focus on well defined academic goals; we embrace methods related to achieving those goals; and we don't let other educrap get in the way. (I mean this in on a systemic level, not that you, your husband, or any other particular person could have done more.)