60 Percent of KIBSD Schools Make ‘AYP’

Jay Barrett/KMXT

The state of Alaska released the No Child Left Behind results for public schools on Friday. Over half of Alaska’s 505 schools did not make what is called "Adequate Yearly Progress," or AYP, during the last school year. Over 54 percent, or 274 schools, did not meet the federally-mandated test score targets.

In the Kodiak Island Borough School District, nine of the 15 schools, or 60 percent, made AYP. Five, plus the correspondence school, did not.

Kodiak Middle School is now at AYP Level 5, and Kodiak High School is at AYP Level 4, meaning they both have not met the adequate yearly progress targets for several years in a row. School Superintendant Stewart McDonald says hitting all 31 of the test criteria is like hitting a moving target.

— (AYP 1 26 sec "But then you’ll take a look at … in language arts.")

However McDonald said his biggest concern is math performance at Kodiak High School.

— (AYP 2 40 sec "We have been watching … performance at that level.")

He said KHS Principal Bill Watkins is working with the math department to make improvements, and it will take a lot of district resources.

McDonald said he does not believe No Child Left Behind is a good model for measuring the overall educational experience students get, even in schools that do not make AYP.

— (AYP 3 31 sec "So what we do is pay Caesar … school, or didn’t.")

He said the Standards-Based Assessment, which compares students grade-by-grade to others across the state, is a better method for judging a school’s ability to turn out educated students. By those measures, he says Kodiak schools are well above average.

McDonald said the federal government is offering to let states file for exemptions to No Child Left Behind, something he supports.

— (AYP 4 33 sec "I think 35 states as of … those population groups.")

In another bit of news from the state department of education, the statewide graduation rate was reported at 68 percent last year, a one half percent increase over the previous year. Locally, McDonald says the rate is above 70 percent.

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