Ken Harding, Superintendent of the Jackson County Board of Education, announced at last Thursday’s board meeting that all Jackson County Schools met the benchmarks for making Adequate Yearly Progress, commonly referred to as AYP.

In order to achieve AYP, students at a school must maintain at least a 95 percent attendance rate, score well on reading and math state assessments and meet the graduation rate requirement.
  
Harding said, “The students, parents and all personnel in the Jackson County School District are to be congratulated. Not only did we make Adequate Yearly Progress, every school in the district met 100 percent of the academic goals set by the Alabama AYP Accountability System. The results re-enforce what I have said over and over about Jackson County Schools, they do a great job! The teachers, staff and administrators are dedicated professionals that rise to the challenge. This is an awesome accomplishment, and I applaud all the schools for the effort put forth to make this possible.”

Student performance from AYP is evaluated by grade levels and by demographic groups, all of which must meet benchmarks set by the state in order to earn “Made AYP” status. When schools fail to make AYP in any category for two years in a row, their status becomes “In School Improvement.”  This year, no Jackson County School is considered to be in school improvement.

Seventy-five percent of Alabama schools met AYP this year, which is a 73 percent increase from last year. This is in part due to the fact that this year’s benchmarks were the same as last, because schools got a waiver on the No Child Left Behind mandates that raise goals each year.

This could be the last year Alabama schools are mandated to comply with No Child Left Behind. The state Department of Education recently began seeking an official waiver from the U.S. Department of Education that would exempt them from NCLB and allow them to create their own education plan, named Plan 2020, which aims at creating career ready graduates.

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