My middle school is one of only two within an hour’s radius that made AYP last year. Believe me, we’re proud–but not unaware of how closely we squeaked by.
See, to make AYP each year we have to reduce our state test failure rate by 10% from the year before. For example, if last year 80% of our students passed the state tests, then this year 82% would need to pass in order for us to achieve AYP.
According to my principal, at the end of last year we were one failure too many. That one failure would cost our school status and esteem and, well, AYP–and so the administration sat down with the documents to see what they could see.
And they saw…a test-failing student who had been suspended for 21 days. Since the law states that any student who misses school for 15 consecutive days is therefore un-enrolled in school (and since any new students or re-enrollees after October don’t count), that one failing student’s test score did not count towards our overall “success” rate.
Which means we made AYP.
The moral to the tale? Suspend potentially failing students for at least 15 days.