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Area schools fall short of AYP

Story by Kendall Jones (Contact)

4:46 p.m. Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Topeka Public schools got some good news today. Only 11 schools did not make Adequate Yearly Progress, or AYP, under No Child Left Behind compared with 13 that didn't make the list last year.

This past spring, 49 News showed you how schools were getting prepared for the big testing days with pep rallies.

It looks like a lot of the work paid off because 90 percent of the state's public schools made AYP this year. Last year, Topeka High and Highland Park High schools didn't make AYP. This year, there were no Topeka high schools on the list.

Last year, five Topeka middle schools didn't make AYP. Topeka Public Schools knocked that down to three this time around. However. as a district USD 501 is struggling with elementary schools.

Two elementary schools did not make AYP last year, but this year that number jumped to seven. That includes Lundgren Elementary, which did not make the standard last year either.

Lundgren is known as a Title 1 school under NCLB, which means 40 percent or more of the students are "low-income." Because it is a title 1 school and they missed AYP for the past two years, Lundgren is on the government's "on improvement" list.

That means parents can move their kids from those schools if they want.

Even though they made AYP this year, Chase Middle School and Scott Computer Technology Magnet schools are also on the "on Improvement" list.

Though 11 Topeka schools didn't make the grade, it is an accomplishment that the district has less schools on the list this year than last year because AYP is on a sliding scale. Each year the standard gets higher.