Loudoun AYP Scores Up But Division Still Fails
Test scores on the Virginia Standards of Learning (SOL’s) in English and mathematics went up across the board in 2010 for Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS). However, like 91 percent of school divisions in the commonwealth, LCPS did not make Adequate Yearly Progress as defined by federal No Child Left Behind legislation.
In English, 94 percent of LCPS students passed the SOL's. In mathematics, this percentage was 91 percent.
No LCPS schools are subject to No Child Left Behind’s transfer provisions.
Statewide results for Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) were announced by the Virginia Department of Education on Thursday, August 12th. Statewide, only 12 of 132 school divisions made AYP. Sixty school divisions attained AYP a year ago.
LCPS attained AYP in both 2008 and 2009.
AYP is measured by test scores in 29 different ethnic and socio-economic subgroups. In 2010, SOL's were administered in grades three through eight and as end-of-course tests in high school.
Altogether there were 2,146 AYP test cells in the 74 Loudoun schools that administered SOL's in 2010. Of this number, only 63 (2.94 percent) were deemed as not making AYP.
For the purpose of measuring AYP, LCPS tracks test scores in seven categories (All Students, Black, Hispanic, White, Students with Disabilities, Economically Disadvantaged and Limited English Proficient). The percentage of students passing both English and mathematics SOL’s rose or remained constant for the third straight year in each of these categories. LCPS students exceeded Virginia’s average pass rate in nine of the 14 categories and was even in another.
“It’s disappointing because of the efforts that I know everyone in the schools and the central office put into including the Virginia standards in our instruction,” said LCPS Assistant Superintendent for Instruction Sharon D. Ackerman. “I really admire the efforts of our school administrators and teachers. I think the NCLB methodology continues to be flawed when there are 29 different ways to measure a school and any one child in any one cell causes the whole school to have a specific rating.
“There’s no reason for people to suddenly think ‘Our schools aren’t as good as they were yesterday’s; I believe we really have to keep this one measure in perspective.
“We take every child’s progress and achievement very seriously. We will follow up with support to the schools. We will make sure the specific areas needing attention are part of their school improvement plans.”
Statewide, 60 percent (1.104 of 1,836) of schools made AYP. 66 percent of LCPS schools attained AYP.
via Loudoun County Public Schools | News Archive.
Posted by Charles Penifore
on Aug 23 2010. Filed under Education, News.
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It is unfortunate that LCPS (in the richest county in the nation)is struggling to attain AYP in a lot of the schools — SOL only measures the MINIMUM each test taker should have learned.
The good news is that there are LCPS students who work so hard on their own and get into the top Unversities and are saought for their acadamic excellence. Freedom High school in Loudoun graduated an AFRICAN AMERICAN MALE students who was accepted by Princeton, MIT, Duke, Cornell, Columbia, Chicago and many, many more top schools. This one individual put LCPS on the map and brought recognition to LCPS that it never had in its history.