MONTGOMERY, AL (WSFA) -
Today is the day that parents learn whether or not the school their child attends makes its own passing grade. The Adequate Yearly Progress report was released Thursday afternoon, grading public schools on how well they teach children.
Alabama's state school superintendent Dr. Tommy Bice says he is pleased with the results overall. School systems and individual schools received either a passing or failing grade.
CLICK HERE to see which systems are making AYP.
CLICK HERE to see which systems are not making AYP.
(List of individual schools broken down in each report).
This could be the last year that schools are measured by this adequate yearly progress, an assessment from the federal government under the No Child Left Behind Act. The rating is based on three key criteria: test scores, test participation and graduation rate.
The Alabama Department of Education will be implementing a new assessment next year, called Plan 2020, a homegrown plan that emphasizes individual student performance and readiness for college, technical training and a career.
Alabama education officials are seeking approval from the U.S. Department of Education to waive a requirement that Alabama students perform proficiently in math and reading on APY by 2014.
Superintendent Bice says, "It has outlived its usefulness. We've got schools that are classified as 'in need improvement' for reasons that aren't valid. I was a special ed teacher when it was first implemented. It did lots of very positive things to get us to focus on that population of students and others that were possibly under represented And what we were doing for kids, not only in this state, but across the nation, so I don't dismiss its value. It's just outlived its usefulness."
The new plan measures each student on their individual progress as opposed to AYP that measures one class of third graders from the past year.
Plan 2020 features four priorities that include students, school systems, teachers and administrators, and school support.
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