October, 2009
As
you know, our eight schools are designated Excelling, once again,
through the Arizona Department of Education's AZ Learns program. AZ Learns is Arizona's requirements to meet the national law for No Child Left Behind (NCLB). Although
all of our eig ht schools are designated as Excelling and all eight
schools made Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP), our district did not meet
the federal definition under NCLB for AYP. Simply
stated, this is a measurement that ensures that each subgroup of
students in our district makes adequate growth or progress in their
learning. For
NCLB, if a district has one subgroup that does not make the expected
progress, the entire district loses the Adequate Yearly Progress
designation.
In CCUSD, we have 255 district subgroups. These
subgroups are for each tested area of the AZ Instrument to Measure
Standards or AIMS (math, reading and writing) and for ethnicity,
special education categories, English Language Learner designation,
poverty status and every tested grade. Each
of the combinations of the previous categories makes up the 255
subgroups for CCUSD. A subgroup must have at least 40 students in it to
be considered for AYP and includes all students in the subgroup for all
the schools in the category. For example, all district third grade
students taking AIMS math who are Caucasian, are one subgroup. Unfortunately, we had one subgroup in 7th grade that did not make adequate yearly progress in AIMS math. This group had exactly 40 students in it, with 9 not making expected progress. For NCLB, this means the district did not make AYP due to one of 255 subgroups not making expected progress. We
want all of our students to make at least one year's growth, if not
more, each school year and our teachers and principals are working
tenaciously to make sure that this one subgroup especially are given
the attention, learning tools and strategies needed to be successful
this year and in future years. Since
this is the first time CCUSD has not made "AYP," there are no sanctions
against the district and no special filing of plans with the state or
federal government. However,
our professional staff has studied the learning areas where these
students need assistance and will be tutoring and teaching accordingly. If you would like further information on NCLB, AZ Learns, AYP or AIMS, please contact Ms. Ann Furnish, Director of Assessment and Accountability at 480-575-2000. As always, I will see you in our schools! Sincerely, Debbi Burdick
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