Tuesday, November 09, 2010

School Districts Targeted for Assistance

The Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) has identified school districts that will receive assistance to help them achieve adequate yearly progress (AYP) under the requirements of the federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act.

Thirteen school districts have not made AYP for eight or more years and are in the “corrective action-year 5” category of consequences under NCLB.

The 13 are:

Adair County
Bourbon County
Bullitt County
Campbell County
Carter County
Clark County
Covington Independent
Fayette County
Grayson County
Hardin County
Jefferson County
Knox County
Simpson County



KDE will provide technical assistance as all 13 districts develop their corrective action plans and deferred programmatic funds budgets. The districts also will submit quarterly progress reports to KDE.

For direct assistance purposes, KDE will focus on the five districts whose combined percentages of students scoring at proficient and distinguished levels in reading and mathematics were the lowest of all districts in the “corrective action-year 5” category. These five districts will receive district-level leadership assessments and targeted assistance from KDE and will work in partnership with Educational Recovery Directors and other KDE staff to develop and implement corrective action plans.

The five are:

Carter County
Covington Independent
Hardin County
Jefferson County
Knox County

Consequences required by NCLB for “corrective action-year 5” mean the 13 districts must take the following actions:
  • develop a corrective action plan approved by KDE
  • defer programmatic funds and develop a budget for deferred funds that will be used to implement activities in the corrective action plan, to be approved by KDE
  • set aside 10 percent of the district’s Title I Part A allocation for high-quality professional development to help teachers close achievement gaps

Each Kentucky school and district has a specific number of NCLB goals to meet in order to make AYP. Among the 13 districts in the “corrective action-year 5” category, the number of goals to reach to achieve AYP ranges from 13 to 25.

See a listing of the percentage of students scoring at proficient/distinguished in reading and mathematics for all 174 school districts in the attached Excel document.

The number of goals varies depending on the sizes of student populations in each district. Student population data is reportable only if it meets a minimum group size of 10 students per grade where NCLB-required assessments are administered and 60 students in those grades combined, or the population makes up at least 15 percent of the total student enrollment in accountable grades.

The maximum number of goals is 25. For school districts, the number of goals to meet ranges from 4 to 25, with only four of the state's most diverse school districts required to meet all 25 goals to make AYP.

As mandated by NCLB, schools and districts that are funded by the federal Title I program will be subject to federal consequences if they do not make AYP in the same content area in any student group for two or more consecutive years. Title I provides funds to ensure that disadvantaged children receive opportunities for high-quality educational services.
Student groups in Kentucky are disaggregated by ethnicity, low-income status (eligibility for free/reduced-price meals) and those with disabilities and limited-English proficiency.

Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) is the term used in NCLB to refer to the minimum improvement required of each school and district over the course of one year. It is measured at the school and district levels by:

  • measuring growth in the percentage of students scoring proficient or above in reading and mathematics
  • assessing improvement on the "other academic indicator"
  • testing at least 95 percent of enrolled students and student populations of sufficient size

NCLB mandates testing in reading and mathematics in grades 3 through 8 and at least once in high school. Schools and districts are held accountable for the progress of student groups on these tests and on rates of participation in testing. Schools also are held accountable for other academic indicators, and for this data set:

  • Elementary and middle schools must increase the percentage of proficient plus distinguished scores in combined science, social studies and writing on-demand compared to prior year; or perform at or above the state average percentage of proficient plus distinguished scores in combined science, social studies and writing on-demand; or decrease the percentage of novice scores in combined reading, mathematics, science, social studies and writing on-demand compared to the prior year.
  • High schools must meet or exceed the yearly graduation rate goals.

More information about school and district test scores and related measures is available through the KDE Open House portal.

SOURCE: KDE Press release

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