The state’s new measuring rod by way of its PASS test to determine “proficiency,” and the hard work of local schools, lifted the Newberry district in the latest round of federal education scoring. The county district went from meeting 18 of its 29 targets last AYP scoring season to hitting 22 of 29 marks in 2009.

Boundary Street, Gallman, Little Mountain, Pomaria-Garmany and Reuben elementary schools and the elementary section of Whitmire Community School all made Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP).

Last year, only the high school section of Whitmire Community School and Little Mountain Elementary School made AYP in the county.

“I am very happy that we had six schools meet AYP,” said Superintendent Bennie Bennett.

But while most public elementary and middle schools in the county improved in targets met from last year’s scores, each high school missed more targets than in 2008. A trend that could be attributed to higher targets.

Of the elementary and middle school group, only Prosperity-Rikard Elementary met the same amount of targets as last year.

For high schools, Mid-Carolina met 16 of its 17 objectives in 2008, but made 12 of 17 in 2009. Whitmire and Newberry High also saw drops: WCS met 5 of 5 in 2008 and 4 of 5 in 2009. Newberry High met 14 of 17 in 2008 and 11 of 17 in this year’s data.

The AYP data released this week gives schools and districts a check mark if they “met AYP,” or in other words, made “Adequate Yearly Progress” by educating all children in math and English and clear the rising bar set by the government’s 2001 act known as No Child Left Behind.

Under No Child Left Behind, schools are held accountable for the achievement of all students, not just average student performance, says the federal government.

But No Child Left Behind uses a “all-or-nothing” rating system and schools must make all of their AYP targets every year to make AYP. Falling short on even one means that a school will not meet AYP and will move toward possible sanctions.

“We are always looking to improve, but it will always be a challenge to demonstrate that improvement as long as we have an all-or-none system in place,” says Bennett. “For example: A school that meets 19 of 20 objectives is rated the same as a school that meets 0 of 20. You must meet all 20 objectives to make AYP.”

And when the No Child Left Behind act passed, South Carolina measured if students were “proficient” or not by its already set “proficient” score through the PACT test, the second highest rating of four PACT grade sections: “advanced,” “proficient,” “basic” and “below basic.”

But other states used shorter hurdles to measure students’ “proficiency,” which South Carolina says equaled PACT’s “basic” rating, one group lower than PACT’s “proficiency” rate.

And now that the South Carolina General Assembly approved PASS, PACT’s replacement, the state’s Department of Education says it has an “apples to apple” comparative grade similar to other states.

PASS made three grade categories of PACT’s four, and with PASS’s “exemplary,” “met” and “not met” grouping, South Carolina students whose scores meet “met” standards, are now said to be “proficient.”

PASS grouping and the state’s new “proficiency” mark is one reason South Carolina elementary and middle school students had higher “proficiency” scores in AYP data.

Indeed, all public elementary and middle schools in the county—except Prosperity-Rikard Elementary, which met the same amount of targets as last year—all measured for AYP with the new PASS test and hit more targets than in 2008.

But Boundary Street Elementary School principal Timothy Hunter says PASS is not the reason his school improved so heartily, moving from just meeting 11 of 17 objectives in 2008 to 17 of 17 in 2009 to get its AYP check mark.

“We’re just excited,” says Hunter. “I’m proud of the faculty and staff and students, because that’s where it’s at.”

Using AYP data, the school has worked hard on specific problem areas, say for example, multiplication, with students in particular “subgroups” which AYP data says weren’t doing well, he says.

The subgroups may be students who receive free and reduced meals or African-American students, for example, Hunter says.

In small group “enrichment time,” teachers and even Hunter himself tutors students to make sure they know the material.

Plus, the school has added an educational after school program, academic clubs and will start a Saturday school next month to prepare for the spring PASS test.

“I’m giving up my golfing to tutor these kids,” says Hunter of the Saturday teaching.

Teachers are coming in too, he says, because “we’re all in this together.”

Already 40 students have signed up.

Conversely, all public area high schools, which don’t use PASS but the HSAP or High School Assessment Program for AYP marks, fell from the number of targets they met in 2008.

But there’s something to consider with the drop.

With No Child Left Behind, the government also set a high bar that all students nationwide must clear to be 100 percent proficient by 2014 in English and math.

So the state has been steadily raising its mark towards 100 percent for 2014, and the high school goal jumped upward in 2009, calling for 71.3 percent proficiency in English language arts from 52.3 percent in 2008, and 70 percent proficiency in math, up from 50 percent in 2008.

Of the state’s 202 high schools, 14 met all of the federal AYP goals, down from 63 last year, according to the state’s Department of Education.

State Superintendent of Education Jim Rex says it won’t be long before no school in the country makes AYP.

“No Child Left Behind’s basic goal is right on target—that schools should educate all children,” says Rex. “But more and more people are starting to realize how irrational the federal system is, and there’s a danger that the law will lose all credibility with the public.”

AYP results are a good indicator for some areas within a school, says Bennett, “but not for total school performance.”

See detailed info on Newberry at http://ed.sc.gov/topics/assessment/scores/ayp/2009/default.cfm