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About
Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) in Pennsylvania
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Why Adequate Yearly Progress?
Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP), as part of the federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), makes schools accountable to students, their parents, teachers, and the community. The purpose of AYP is to ensure that all students have reading and math skills that prepare them for the future. This law states that all students must reach the Proficient level or higher in Reading or Language Arts and Mathematics by 2014. School districts and schools must show Adequate Yearly Progress on several measurable indicators: Attendance or Graduation Rate, Academic Performance, and Test Participation.
AYP targets measure whether a school or district is making sufficient annual progress towards the goal of 100% proficiency.
The 41 NCLB targets indicate specific areas where schools may need to improve (click here to view chart of all 41 possible targets). A school that misses only one target will not meet AYP�but this does not mean it is a failing school. Rather, AYP indicates to school leadership that areas of opportunity exist. AYP can also identify schools with persistent and pervasive problems. Measuring AYP can prompt schools that consistently miss targets to make drastic improvements. While these improvements are being made, options are available to students, from tutoring to choice of alternative schools.
District targets are assessed in three grade spans: Grades 3–5, 6–8, and 9–12. . To meet AYP goals in Academic Performance or Test Participation, the district needs to achieve all targets for both subjects in one grade span only. This is different from previous years and current school AYP requirements whereby all grades are assessed as a whole and all targets must be met.
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What does Adequate Yearly Progress Measure?
AYP measures student results for three indicators, as illustrated–Attendance (for schools without a High School graduating class) or Graduation Rate (for schools with a High School graduating class); Academic Performance; and Test Participation. The details of AYP measurement can be complicated.
AYP requires that all groups of children reach proficiency in Reading or Language
Arts and
Mathematics – hence the phrase “no child left behind.” These groups include all racial and ethnic backgrounds, students with limited English proficiency, economically disadvantaged students, and special education students. (When these subgroups contain fewer than 40 students the subgroup is not separately evaluated for AYP).
States determine AYP performance targets based on students' standardized test scores each year. The Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) uses the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA) to determine AYP performance. Participation in and performance on the PSSA is a cornerstone of measuring AYP results. As measured by the PSSA, students' scores fall into one of four levels:
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Advanced
(highest)
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Proficient
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Basic
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Below
Basic (lowest)
The specific targets to meet AYP in 2007 are listed below:
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What are the targets for School AYP?
1. Attendance or Graduation Rate:
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The Attendance target is 90%, or any improvement from the previous year.
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Attendance applies to schools that do not have a high school graduating class, and the rate is based on the entire school.
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The Graduation Rate target is 80%, or any improvement from the previous year.
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The Graduation Rate applies to schools that have a high school graduating class, and includes only students enrolled as members of that class.
2. Achieving Proficiency (Academic Performance):
Schools' AYP state targets are the percentage of students that must meet or exceed scores at the proficient level in Mathematics and Reading.
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The PA state targets for this school year (2006-07) were 45% of students scoring at Proficient or higher in Mathematics and 54% of students scoring at Proficient or higher in Reading.
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In 2008, these targets will increase to 56% of students scoring at Proficient or higher in Mathematics and 63% of students scoring at Proficient or higher in Reading.
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These percentages will increase gradually until the year 2014 when the target will be set at 100% of students scoring at Proficient or higher in Mathematics and Reading.
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NCLB allows schools to meet their proficiency targets by "Safe Harbor." Safe Harbor states that if a school achieves a 10% decrease of students who scored below Proficient from the previous year, it meets the AYP target for proficiency.
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The proficiency rate is based on only those students enrolled for the full academic year (enrolled as of October 1, 2006), who completed the test, and who are not first year "English Language Learners" students.
3. Taking the Test (Test Participation):
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At least 95% of students overall and within each subgroup must take the test.
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The participation rate is based on those students enrolled as of the last day of the assessment window (March 30, 2007), regardless of whether or not those students were enrolled for a full academic year.
What are the targets for District AYP?
District AYP uses all the individual student data from the district (not school level results) and organizes them into three distinct grade spans. By contrast, PA school targets are based on all tested grades in the school. This means that the district level has potentially three times the number of targets as the school level, and the district does not need to meet every target to meet AYP. Only one grade span needs to be met to satisfy goals for either Academic Performance or Test Participation in the two subjects. All subgroup targets within the grade span must be met in order for the grade span to meet AYP.
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How can an AYP target be met?
Overall, a school or district either meets or does not meet AYP. While it only takes one missed target to “Not Meet AYP,”
(indicated by a: " Did
not meet AYP target") there are several ways to meet
AYP targets:
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"
Met AYP Target": indicates that the AYP target was met for the school or district overall, or that a group met AYP by reaching the state target.
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Met group AYP target using 95% Confidence Interval": indicates that a group met AYP by the state target criteria only when using a 95% Confidence Interval.
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Met group AYP by Safe Harbor target": indicates that a group met AYP by the Safe Harbor improvement criteria, which require a reduction of 10% from the previous year in the percentage of students who scored below Proficient.
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Met group AYP by Safe Harbor target using 75% Confidence Interval":
indicates that a group met AYP by the Safe Harbor improvement criteria only when using a 75% Confidence Interval.
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Met group AYP by the Pennsylvania Performance Index (PPI)":
indicates that a group met AYP by meeting the criteria for PPI growth. This criteria is set by the state.
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Met group AYP by Appeal": indicates that a group met AYP by appeal. This is generally based on extenuating circumstances, as outlined below.
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Met group AYP by Proxy": indicates that the IEP group met the target after 14 percentage points were added to the percent of proficient students. This was done as a proxy for students who will be eligible to take a new modified alternative assessment.
What does it mean to Meet AYP Targets by Safe Harbor?
A school or district can meet AYP targets through a provision called Safe Harbor, which is a measure of improvement in test performance. Safe Harbor is achieved when a subgroup has greatly improved since the previous year–even though they did not meet the state target. (The measure for Safe Harbor improvement is at least a 10% reduction over the previous year of the percentage of students who scored below Proficient for reading or mathematics). Please note that this metric will not be listed if the school or district met 2006-07 AYP targets without the Safe Harbor provision.
What does it mean to Meet AYP Targets by Appeal?
Preliminary reports on school and district 2007 AYP status were available as of July 17, 2007.
If the school or district believed that the proposed identification was in error for statistical or other substantive reasons, the school or district was allowed to provide supporting evidence to the Bureau of Assessment and Accountability at the Pennsylvania Department of Education.
This year, schools and districts also had the opportunity to correct coding errors in the data themselves.
Final determinations on appeals were made prior to the public release of this report. When AYP targets for schools or districts have been met by appeal, this is indicated in the report.
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How is the Confidence Interval (C.I.) used in AYP decisions?
Confidence intervals take into account the fact that the students tested in any particular year might not be representative of students in that school across the years. Confidence intervals control for this sampling error or variation across years by "passing" schools or subgroups that come very close to achieving their annual thresholds. In 2004, the United States Department of Education approved a 95% Confidence Interval (C.I.) in Pennsylvania for AYP performance calculations. Forty-six states currently use C.I.s in determining AYP. A 95% C.I. can be used for meeting the state proficiency target, while a 75% C.I. can be used for meeting the Safe Harbor target.
Why do some schools and districts need to meet more targets than others?
Schools and districts need to meet AYP targets for Academic Performance and Test Participation in the grade levels used for calculations. Results for subgroups are used only when there are 40 or more students in the group (although a school with fewer than 40 students is still accountable at the overall level). Thus, while NCLB defines 41 possible AYP criteria to meet, most schools and districts in Pennsylvania do not have enough students to make all of these targets applicable.
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What are the AYP status levels?
AYP reports the performance of schools and districts in status levels that depend on the school or district's performance in recent years. The AYP status levels are illustrated in the flow chart (with their paths across years, as well as actions at each level) linked here. The key that indicates the AYP status levels from highest to lowest is shown below:
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What happens to a school if it meets AYP targets?
There are two possibilities for schools that meet AYP targets this year, depending on their previous year's results:
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Schools that met AYP targets last year, or that were at "Warning"
status last year (e.g., the school did not meet AYP targets for the first time)will be on-track for meeting the NCLB goal of all students reaching proficiency by the year 2014 if they meet all AYP targets this year.
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Schools that had a "School Improvement" or "Corrective
Action" status last year enter a probationary period
called "Making Progress". This means that the school must also meet AYP targets for a second consecutive year to be considered on-track to meet the NCLB goal.
What happens to a school if it does not meet AYP targets?
There are both supports and consequences for schools that do not meet the targets for two consecutive years. There are three possibilities for schools that do not meet AYP targets this year, depending on their previous year's results:
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Which students are included in AYP reporting?
Reported AYP results may not be identical to school or district's own results. This could be for several reasons:
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Certain students are not included in AYP calculations as indicated in the
"School AYP" section above.
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To respect student privacy, results may only be reported publicly on groups with at least ten students. Additionally, reliability is a concern as reporting on small groups can sometimes cause statistical fluctuations. The state-defined minimum number of students for reporting and accountability is set at a minimum of 40 students to satisfy reliability requirements. For additional protection of confidentiality and for increased reliability, AYP results may be based on data from this year only, or on an average of up to three years of data.
What is the Pennsylvania Performance Index (PPI)?
PPI measures growth across all levels of the PSSA, not just from Basic to Proficient. This index starts each school and subgroup at its own baseline and is aligned with the federal No Child Left Behind Act as it aims for 100% proficiency by 2014. PPI can be used by schools and districts to demonstrate significant growth, and thereby meet AYP targets. Since this index shows significant growth including growth at the lowest levels, it is a good indication that low performing schools are building a foundation to meet AYP objectives.
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