Manassas Park Administrators, School Board, Discuss AYP and Goals for This Year

Manassas Park City Schools staff and school board members discussed at length this week the division’s 2010-2011 Adequate Yearly Progress and what the results of the Standards of Learning tests mean for staff and students.

Manassas Park City Schools, did not make Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) as outlined by the federal government through the No Child Left Behind law,  according to data released this month by the Virginia Department of Education.

Ninety-seven percent of Virginia school divisions didn’t make AYP, according to the data.

During Monday’s school board meeting Jon Mamon, the assessment and accountability director for the school division, presented several slides that broke down the data and explained the AYP process to board members and others.

The school division met 75 percent or, 109 of the 145 required AYP benchmarks this year.  Last year the division met 140 of the 145 benchmarks.  In order to make AYP, a school or school division has to meet all of the benchmarks.

Each year, the benchmarks go up by several percentage points and will continue to go up if waivers for the No Child Left Behind Law are not implemented soon, said educators, many of whom are frustrated by the law.  

McDade said that the data shows that the school division improved in many areas which is indicative of what a good job the teachers are doing.

There a dozens of children in the elementary schools who scored in the low 300s on their SOL tests last year, but scored in the 390s this year.

“ … There are scads of those kids who showed improvement individually and I think that’s a success story,” Mamon said.

The individual Manassas Park schools and the entire school division didn’t make AYP this year as the result of the performance of certain sub groups, such as students with disabilities, the economically disadvantaged and those with limited English proficiency, according to school officials.

“(Principal Eric) Neff was telling me that at Manassas Park Middle School that they missed AYP by a handful of students. Students, that in some cases, cut across three categories,” McDade said. “For example, Hispanic, LEP (Limited English Proficient) and special education.”

The SOL history scores slipped this year and were lower than last year’s scores, Mamon said.

“If you are not familiar, we had new history standards this year and a rigorous test that was new to everyone,” Mamon said. “A lot of us have talked to different folks around the state and people were shocked by the results because the results went down 20 points or more in some places. But I think we hung tight in that area.”

Last week McDade and other administrators gathered for a one-day retreat to discuss action plans for the upcoming school year.

“ … Regardless of whether we make AYP or not, this is an exercise we always engage in,” McDade said. “We take a look at the data and we make decisions based on results. We’re not doing this just because, we are doing this because we always do it.”

Cougar Elementary, for example, has nine literacy goals for next year in addition to others. 

The school has an instructional plan to accelerate learning for Kindergarteners who enter the school without letter and sound recognition, McDade said.

There has been a lot of screening and teachers have discovered that some young children have absolutely no concept of letter or sound, he said.

Cougar and Manassas Park Elementary School administrators have taken it upon themselves to develop a math council to address the curriculum assessment needs.

All eighth grade students will be taking Algebra this year, so middle school administrators have put plans in place to address any problems students may be having with the subject, McDade said.

Additionally all middle school teachers, including those who  teach electives, will teach school literacy and writing.

The high school has chosen to hire a math teacher which will allow them to double block mathematics which will allow them to offer Algebra everyday.