More Georgia schools meet 'No Child Left Behind' testing goals

State Superintendent of Schools Kathy Cox said the report shows that students are “continuing to make excellent progress, even as we raise expectations.”

But some of the results were mixed.

For example, although 58 schools made AYP for a second consecutive year and were able to come out of “needs improvement status, the number of schools with that label was almost unchanged. The report shows 334 schools in “needs improvement” status for the coming year, compared to the 340 that were NI after last year’s initial results.

The report also shows that high schools are still struggling to make AYP. Only about 47 percent of the state’s high schools made AYP, a slight decrease from 2008’s initial results.

A final AYP report is slated for release this fall and will include summer retest scores and summer graduates.

AYP is the formula used to determine if schools are meeting expectations under the federal No Child Left Behind Act. It consists of three parts -- test participation, academic achievement and another statistic, called a “second indicator.”

The academic goals continue to rise every few years, with the objective of having a 100 percent passing rate for all students by 2014.

This year, all of the academic goals remained the same as 2008, although the graduation rate bar went up.

All three metro Atlanta schools that are the focus of a CRCT cheating scandal made AYP, according the initial report.

The schools -- Atlanta’s Deerwood Academy, DeKalb County’s Atherton Elementary School, and Fulton County’s Parklane Elementary School -- were stripped of their AYP status last week by the State Board of Education and would have been in “needs improvement” status, had they failed AYP this year.

A fourth school, in Glynn County, where state officials said there’s evidence that results of a summer CRCT retest were altered, fell into needs improvement status with the state board’s vote last week. It failed to make AYP again this year, according to the initial report.

All of the schools in Fayette County, on Atlanta’s southside, maintained their record of making AYP every year.

“It takes the entire school community working together to accomplish this goal,” said Dr. John DeCotis, superintendent. “We are fortunate to have teachers, students and parents who understand the value of an education and dedicate themselves to helping our schools strive for excellence everyday.”

All of the schools in Forsyth County made AYP for the first time in four years.

“This truly reflects quality, standards based teaching on the part of the best teaching faculty in the nation,” said Superintendent L.C. “Buster” Evans.