FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE	Contact: Bonnie Fischer
Date: 08/18/04	Phone: 757.263.1234
News Release No. 037A	Fax: 757.263.1010
	E-mail: bfischer@vbschools.com

No Child Left Behind Data Reporting VBCPS Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) Released

In this second year of reporting division-wide and individual school success in making adequate yearly progress (AYP) as required by the No Child Left Behind legislation (NCLB), Virginia Beach City Public Schools is reporting that none of its schools will be required to offer the transfer option. Under NCLB, Title I schools that do not make AYP for two consecutive years in the same subject area are identified for improvement and must notify parents of their status prior to the beginning of the school year. These schools must offer students the opportunity to transfer to other schools within the division that are not identified for improvement. In Virginia Beach, College Park and Parkway elementary schools, both designated Title I and previously on “watch” status, have made AYP, thus avoiding moving into school improvement with the transfer option for 2004-2005. In addition, the data indicate that 81 percent of the division’s 80 testing schools are expected to make AYP. This is an increase of five percentage points, up from last year’s 76 percent of schools making AYP. “Virginia Beach schools are showing continuous improvement with a steady progressive climb in the percentage of schools making AYP. This progress, combined with the fact we will have no schools required to offer the transfer option, is certainly something to be celebrated,” said Diane Jones, Assistant Superintendent of Accountability, the department that oversees the division’s compliance with NCLB. Jones also pointed out that two elementary schools – Glenwood and Rosemont – have not had their AYP status determined due to record changes that have been submitted to the state. “When these changes are executed, both schools will make AYP. Thus, VBCPS achieves a division wide AYP passing rate of 81 percent,” she said. Fifteen Virginia Beach schools will not make AYP. “Not making AYP does not mean a school is a failing school. Rather, AYP is simply another measure of school success as delineated by federal legislation. I think it is important to note just how high the bar is set. If a school missed just one of the 29 – 35 benchmarks, it didn’t make AYP. Eleven of our 15 schools missed making AYP by only one or two benchmarks,” Jones noted. At the division level, Virginia Beach missed making AYP in only one of the required benchmarks. One of its subgroups, students with disabilities, recorded a 57.32 percent performance rate in English. To make AYP, the required performance rate is 61 percent. The division did meet all other requirements for all subgroups and the total testing population. “We missed making AYP as a division both last year and this year but it was for a different subgroup,” said Jones. For a school or school division to make AYP under the federal education law, it must meet or exceed 29 to 35 separate requirements which include participation in statewide testing, achievement in reading and mathematics, and attendance rate or science passing rate (elementary and middle schools) or graduation rate (high schools). These requirements apply to all students as a group as well as to these subgroups: students with disabilities, limited English proficient students, economically disadvantaged students, and the state-designated major racial/ethnic groups (Caucasian, African-American, Hispanic). A school or school division that falls short in a single requirement is not considered to have made AYP. For more information about Virginia Beach City Public Schools’ AYP results, please contact the Department of Accountability at 263-1030.

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