The only Asheville City School that made Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) this year under the state’s ABC program is the School of Inquiry and Life Sciences (SILSA), a small honors school serving 195 students on the campus of Asheville High. The full list of schools is below.
Last year, three of the city’s schools achieved AYP (Hall Fletcher, Vance, and SILSA). However, this year North Carolina’s target goals increased to move the state closer to the federally required 100 percent target by 2013-14 of Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP).
As a result, for a North Carolina public school to make AYP in 2010-11, 71.6 percent of third- though eighth-grade students in each subgroup must be proficient in reading and 88.6 percent must be proficient in mathematics. For 10th graders, 69.3 percent of each subgroup must be proficient in reading and 84.2 percent must be proficient in mathematics.
In comparison, in 2009-10, the AYP targets for elementary and middle school (third through eighth grade) were 43.2 percent proficient in reading and 77.2 percent proficient in mathematics. For 10th graders (high schools), the targets were 38.5 percent proficient in reading and 68.4 percent proficient in mathematics.
Although eight out of Asheville’s nine schools failed to meet this year’s federal AYP standards, city officials touted improved graduation rates and other ABC measurements.
Asheville City Schools achieved an 80.7 percent graduation rate in 2011, the highest rate since the new state graduation model was implemented five years ago — a seven-point gain from the previous year. North Carolina’s graduation rate also increased by 3.5 points to 77.7 percent.
In addition, five city schools (Hall Fletcher, Isaac Dickson, Claxton, Vance and SILSA) were given “high growth” status by the N.C. Department of Public Instruction, which administers the accountability program. Two schools serving students in grades K-five were recognized by the state as “Schools of Distinction”: Isaac Dickson and Vance Elementary Schools. And Asheville High School earned “School of Progress” status for a second consecutive year. Students there met 16 of 17 AYP goals for 2010-11, a sizable increase from the prior year, when just 11 of 17 AYP goals were achieved.
“Our classroom teachers are motivated, well-prepared and working hard to ensure students are prepared for each successive grade level,” said Superintendent Allen Johnson in an Aug. 4 statement after the results were released. “For several years now we have supported a renewed focus on keeping the young men and women we serve in school. … Their work along with several other initiatives is obviously making a difference.”
Meanwhile, only two Buncombe County schools made AYP.
Here’s a full list of Asheville City Schools and their corresponding AYP target goals:
A school must reach all, or 100 percent, of its target goals to earn AYP status.
Randolph Learning Center
School did not make Adequate Yearly Progress
School met one (or 33.3 percent) out of three target goals
Asheville High
School
School did not make Adequate Yearly Progress
School met 16 (or 94.1 percent) out of 17 target goals
Hall Fletcher Elementary
School did not make Adequate Yearly Progress
School met 12 (or 70.6 percent) out of 17 target goals
Isaac Dickson Elementary
School did not make Adequate Yearly Progress
School met 12 (or 80 percent) out of 15 target goals
Claxton Elementary
School did not make Adequate Yearly Progress
School met 15 (or 88.2 percent) out of 17 target goals
Ira B. Jones Elementary
School did not make Adequate Yearly Progress
School met 12 (or 70.6 percent) out of 17 target goals
Asheville Middle
School did not make Adequate Yearly Progress
School met 21 (or 72.4 percent) out of 29 target goals
Vance Elementary
School did not make Adequate Yearly Progress
School met 14 (or 82.4 percent) out of 17 target goals
School of Inquiry and Life Sciences
School made Adequate Yearly Progress
School met five (or 100 percent) out of five target goals
what’s the results of charter schools?
I was looking on their website but I don’t think charter or home schools have to meet these standards, can anyone correct me?
My daughter is in SILSA. Congrats to their program, teachers and students.
And what does it mean to be “proficient?” Is that a B average grade? C?
There’s also this from AC-T:
“Four out of five Buncombe County schools and all Asheville City schools met or exceeded expected academic growth, according to the new ABCs of Public Education report released on Thursday.
Of 40 Buncombe County schools, 32 met expected growth. Of the eight Buncombe County schools failing to meet expected growth, five were high schools.
[…]
All nine Asheville City schools and all three charter schools in Buncombe County met expected growth, based on the latest report.
Of county schools, 12 out of 40 exceeded academic growth expectations. Five of nine city schools exceeded growth expectations, and two of three charter schools also exceeded growth expectations.
For city schools, it was the second year in a row that all schools met expected growth.”
http://www.citizen-times.com/article/20110805/NEWS/308050024/Area-schools-meet-state-goals?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|Frontpage
Its those evil Republicans defunding education. JUST LOOK!!! The scary thing, is that some people will actually think along those lines. At what point do we stop throwing money at failed government schools. If education is the answer, we need to seriously rethink our approach. Hard to argue with numbers.
I have been a faculty member at a University for 30+ years. Helping students learn has been my passion since my grad school days. But about 29 years ago I realized I couldn’t “TEACH” anybody anything in a math/science course. I could only facilitate the learning of the student, and I could do that IF AND ONLY IF the student was motivated to learn. Over my 30 years, I’ve noticed NO decline in the INTELLECT of my charges but perceptible decline in the MOTIVATION of all but the top 10% of students. I have degrees in Math, Physics, and Computer Science and mastering these subjects is HARD WORK, and it is not always “FUN”.
I suggest to my students to consider being on a national championship football team. Winning the title is about as much fun as you can (legally) have but the 2-a-days in August that it took to build the foundation were anything but…
A recent survey of college students showed that most spent < 1 hour a week on classwork per course outside class. And over half of them thought expecting more than a 1:1 ratio of class time to outta class time was "unfair". I can flat guarantee you that if the average AVL city school student expending 1/2 of the out class time working as hard on studies as the average AHS football or basketball player expends on in-season practice THERE WOULD BE NO PROBLEM meeting these goals.