Forsyth County School System Misses the Mark on AYP

For the first time in two years, Forsyth County Schools, as a system, did not achieve Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP), according to the school district. But the county is not all alone--out of 183 school systems there were only 31 that made AYP this year.

The school district also reports that there are three schools in the county that did not make AYP for the 2010-2011 school year.

Those three are Forsyth Central High School, Forsyth Academy and iAchieve Virtual Academy.

Forsyth Central High School did not make AYP in 2011 due to academic performance in English for the student subgroups of Hispanic and Economically Disadvantaged.

Under No Child Left Behind when a school does not make AYP in the same subgroup in the same subject for two years consecutively, the school is considered in Needs Improvement. FCHS has not made the performance indicator for English and Hispanic students in 2010 or in 2011; therefore, the school is designated in Needs Improvement Year 1.

The county school district Web site states:

• 78.3 percent of the grade 11 Hispanic students met or exceeded the standard while 21.7 percent (13 students) did not meet standard.
  
  
• 83.1 percent of the grade 11 Economically Disadvantaged students met or exceeded the standard while 16.9 percent (15 students) did not meet standard. 

There is assistance and good news:

During the 2011-2012 school year, the district will be offering Forsyth Central students Supplemental Education Services (tutoring) free of charge. Parents and students will be notified once school begins (Aug. 11) through a letter and on the Web site.

• Of all students, 90.8 percent met standard in English with more than half (55.4%) exceeding standard.

• Off all students, 94.0 percent of all students met standard in Math with 66.5 percent exceeding standard.

Forsyth Central High also increased its graduation rate this year to 87.7 percent (a 2.7 percent jump from the previous year and the highest in the school’s history). The school also posted an 11 percent increase in the number of Economically Disadvantaged students that graduated this year.

“The district met all academic performance indicators for CRCT and GHSGT and posted a 90.3 percent graduation rate," said Lissa Pijanowski, Associate Superintendent for Academics and Accountability. "While we met the goal in English for Students with Disabilities in grade 11, it was close. Therefore, we needed to make the 85 percent goal for graduation rate for that subgroup. Although we realized a 7.1 percent gain in graduation rate for this student subgroup, this one indicator caused the district to not make AYP."

Forsyth Academy and iAchieve Virtual Academy did not make AYP for the 2010-2011 school year due to a lower than 95 percent test participation rate on the Georgia High School Graduation Tests (GHSGT) in Math. 

• Forsyth Academy had 20 students test out of the 22 that were eligible resulting in a 91 percent participation rate.
• iAchieve Virtual Academy had 16 students test out of the 18 that were eligible resulting in a 89 percent participation rate

“We regret these schools did not make AYP for test participation and the school leadership is committed to doing all they can to ensure students are present and tested”, states Pijanowski, “These non-traditional schools offer quality learning opportunities for our students."

The school district points out that both schools had 100 percent participation in GHSGT English and iAchieve, which also serves middle school students, had 97.5 percent participation rate on CRCT Math and 100 percent on CRCT English. 

AYP is a series of annual performance goals set by the state for each school district and school, as well as for the state as a whole, according to the Department of Education’s Web site. By participating in Title I, states must commit themselves to the goal of the federal No Child Left Behind Act: that by 2014 all students will be proficient in reading, English and math, as determined by state assessments.

Title I is a voluntary federal program that provides more than $11 billion to participating states to help educate low-income children, the Web site states.

In a release, Superintendent Buster Evans said, “While we are proud our FCS student achievement is top in the state, we welcome accountability and believe that we can always achieve higher levels of student learning.  We are committed to meeting the needs of all of our students and never feel as though we have arrived.”