FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE	Contact: Eileen Smith
Date: 08/16/05	Phone: 757.263.1949
News Release No. 039	Fax: 757.263.1010
	E-mail: Eileen.smith@vbschools.com

Virginia Beach City Public Schools Makes Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) Under No Child Left Behind Guidelines Based on Preliminary Data

Federal No Child Left Behind legislation (NCLB) requires individual schools, school divisions, and states to meet annual objectives for Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) for student performance on state-wide tests in reading and mathematics. At the division level, Virginia Beach City Public Schools met the necessary benchmarks to make AYP for 2004-2005. Preliminary data indicate that 94 percent of the 80 testing schools in Virginia Beach are expected to make AYP. That’s up 13 percentage points from the previous school year. Only five or fewer schools are not expected to make AYP. Final data will not be available until pending student record changes are submitted to the state for certification. Under the federal education law, a school division must meet or exceed 29 to 35 separate requirements which include participation in statewide testing, achievement in reading and mathematics, and attendance rate, science passing rate (elementary and middle schools) or graduation rate (high schools). Missing a single benchmark may result in a school or school division not making AYP. 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, and Hispanic). This year the performance bar was raised for schools and school districts. In order to make AYP, 65 percent of a school’s students must demonstrate proficiency in reading (up from 61 percent last year) and 63 percent (up from 59 percent from last year) must be proficient in mathematics. The standards will progressively increase until the 2013-2014 school year at which time 100 percent of the students in individual schools and school districts are expected to achieve proficiency in reading and mathematics. In Virginia Beach, the five schools projected not to make AYP are: Kempsville Middle, Landstown Middle, Larkspur Middle, Lynnhaven Middle, and Salem High. Based on student record changes recently submitted to the Virginia Department of Education, it is anticipated that Salem High School’s status will change and the school will make AYP. Dr. Jared Cotton, assistant superintendent of accountability, the department which oversees the school division’s compliance with NCLB and analyzes data on behalf of the schools, points out that AYP is just one more way to measure school success. In fact, all schools that may miss making AYP are projected to receive full Standards of Learning (SOL) accreditation from the state. “Given the higher standards, our results are remarkable. When you consider that missing even one benchmark, whether it’s attendance or a lower score by one subgroup of students, can keep a school from making AYP, you get an idea of just how difficult it is. The fact that so many of our schools, including all Title I schools, made AYP is outstanding,” says Cotton. According to 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 also offer students the opportunity to transfer to other identified schools within the division that are not identified in need of improvement. In Virginia Beach, there were 14 Title I schools in 2004-2005. None of them will be identified as in need of improvement and will subsequently not be required to offer school choice. For more information about Virginia Beach City Public School’s AYP results, please contact the Department of Accountability at 263-1030.

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