What is AYP?

As part of the federal No Child Left Behind Act, AYP is used to measure student progress toward meeting federal reading and math proficiency standards. AYP measures academic performance targets of different groups of students, including those living with poverty, with disabilities or with limited English-language proficiency as well as students of every ethnicity.  Schools and districts with 30 or more students in any group are required to report performance target information on that group. 

How did APS do?

In 2005, the AYP performance targets in all subjects are higher than 2004. The increases were largest for math in middle and high school.  “Under the new 2005 targets, APS met 86 percent of our targets.  The district would have met 91 percent of targets if the measures had remained stable.  At the middle school level, we met 93 percent of the targets in 2005.  We would have met 100 percent if the 2004 rating would have remained in place," said Assessment Director Lisa Escárcega.

What does AYP really tell us?

Some district schools missed AYP because only one or two students did not meet the targets.  APS is seeing annual student academic growth at almost every level, but AYP does not highlight this.  AYP indicates how students perform according to the federal targets, but it does not tell anything about how much a student learns over the course of a year.  "These AYP results only partially reflect the hard work and accomplishments of our students, staff and parents," said Superintendent Bob Adams.