Half (50 percent) of Indiana schools met a raised standard for adequate yearly progress (AYP) this year - a decrease from 54 percent a year ago when schools faced a comparatively lower bar for making AYP.

"It's unacceptable that only half our schools are achieving the minimum federal standard," said State Superintendent of Public Instruction Dr. Tony Bennett. "The circumstances require a renewed commitment from all Hoosiers and a sense of urgency that, sadly, doesn't currently exist. We simply must do better. The bar has been raised, but if Indiana students are going to compete with their peers from across the U.S. and around the world, we must continue to raise expectations across the board."

Locally, both Carroll and Delphi Community School Corporations, as a whole, met the latest AYP. Individual schools within those corporations also made AYP, except for Delphi Community Elementary School.

DCES has not made AYP since 2005. In 2008, the school made 16 out of the 19 qualifying categories. The two years before that, the margin was even narrower - making 16 out of 17 categories in 2007 and 18 out of 19 categories in 2006.

This is the second time since 2005 that Indiana has increased the minimum percentage of students required to pass state ISTEP+ tests in accordance with the federal government's charge that 100 percent of students meet grade-level standards in reading and math by 2014.

Since 2002, the federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) has required public schools to meet annual performance targets for both the overall student population and for any demographic group within the school that includes 30 or more students. These groups include: economic background, English proficiency, race/ethnicity and special education. Schools must meet all AYP targets in every student group to make AYP.

"Every school has room to improve as a general rule, but we should make a distinction between those schools that are just barely falling short of their progress goals versus those schools that are chronically failing across the board," said Bennett.

Of schools that have been assessed for AYP at least four times since 2003, 20 percent (350) have never missed AYP and 16 percent (282) have missed just one year. Of the schools that did not meet AYP this year, 21 percent (199) missed in only one category. In contrast, 9 percent (168) schools have missed AYP every time they have been assessed since 2003. Of those, 26 schools have missed AYP in greater than 50 percent of the total categories in which they have been assessed. The vast majority (92 percent) of those 26 schools are located in high-poverty, urban areas with 42 percent located in central Indiana and 27 percent located in the northwest region of the state.

Consequences

NCLB includes formal consequences for public schools that consistently do not make AYP and also participate in the federal Title I program. Title I schools have high percentages of students from low-income families and receive additional federal funding to help educate these students. After not making AYP for two consecutive years, Title I schools enter improvement status, a series of interventions that become more extensive for each additional year that a Title I school does not make AYP. Delphi Community Elementary School is in this improvement status.

Out of the 836 Title I schools assessed for AYP, 30 percent (257) are in improvement this year, an increase of 37 schools compared to last year. Twenty-three (23) Title I schools exited improvement status this year after making AYP for two consecutive years.

Critics of the federal accountability measure have noted that the law penalizes schools with diverse, low-income student populations since these schools must meet a greater number of AYP targets. However, Hosford Park Elementary in Gary, Lakeside Elementary in Indianapolis and Christel House Academy in Indianapolis are three examples of Title I schools that have consistently defied that conventional wisdom.

Each school serves a highpoverty, high-minority student population, and all three have made AYP every year they have been assessed since 2003.

"These are examples of three schools - two traditional public schools and a public charter school - that are facing all the challenges we know so well and beating the odds," Bennett said. "Clearly there isn't a onesize fits-all model for success, but these schools prove what's possible for all Indiana schools."

More AYP information

For more AYP information, including local corporation/ school AYP ratings and interventions for Title I schools in improvement status, visit www.doe.in.gov/ayp.