Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) results, released yesterday, show that while the school district as a whole is showing improvement, fewer county schools met AYP in 2007, and two local schools are facing sanctions.

Under the federal law No Child Left Behind (NCLB), districts and schools across the nation are all working towards a common academic goal. By the year 2014, all students are to have reached “proficiency” testing levels in their own state. In South Carolina, this means about a B+ average on standardized tests such as PACT and HSAP.

To judge how states, districts and schools are progressing toward this goal, AYP sets forth a list of objectives to be met. If a school or district does not meet any one of the established objectives, it does not meet AYP for the year. The number of objectives to be met depends on demographics. If a school or district has 40 or more students in any given subgroup (male, female, white, African-American, Hispanic, etc.) those students become an “objective” that counts towards AYP. Graduation and attendance rates and the percent of students tested also factor into AYP ratings.

In Newberry, the school district has 29 objectives to meet, and this year it met 20 of them. This is an improvement over 2006 when the district met 18 of its 29 objectives. So again this year, Newberry, along with every district in the state, fell short of meeting AYP. As a whole, AYP scores show the district's graduation rate has improved as well as the percent of students tested.

Boundary Street elementary and Whitmire Community School (elementary) are two of the 51 schools across the state required to offer school choice this school year.

Any Title I school (a school receiving federal Title I funds for students from low income households) not meeting the same AYP objective(s) two years in a row is considered in “Needs Improvement” status. These schools must offer parents a choice of sending their child to another school not in NI status. With the exception of Little Mountain Elementary, all district elementary schools receive Title I funding.

At Boundary Street Elementary, the school tested less than 90 percent of its students in six of the same objective areas two years in a row, causing it to miss its “percent tested” AYP objective. In Whitmire, this is the second year the specific AYP target for students on subsidized meals has not been met. If these areas are not improved next year, the schools will face more severe sanctions.

This is the first year Newberry County schools have had to offer school choice. Parents should expect letters explaining school choice options within the next two weeks.

“It will be a lengthy explanation (letter) of the plan and why,” said Assistant Superintendent for Instruction Cynthia Downs. “This is the first time we've been in this position. We give the parents an opportunity to respond