Federal benchmark unmet by some local schools

The Arizona Department of Education released the AYP results earlier this week, and two Maricopa Unified Schools failed to make the grade.

The AYP (Adequate Yearly Progress) is a federal measurement of a school’s improvement over the previous school year. This is a pass-fail benchmark set by the No Child Left Behind Act.

Education officials determine a school’s improvement by measuring how well the students performed on the AIMS (Arizona’s Instrument to Measure Standards) test. In addition, in order to pass the AYP schools must test an average of 95 percent of the students who fall into each of these subgroups: ethnic minorities, disabled and those who aren’t fluent in English. Each school must also increase or maintain graduation and/or attendance rates.

The schools that failed the AYP in MUSD were Maricopa Elementary and Maricopa Wells Middle School.

Both of the schools failed to have enough students pass the AIMS test.

However, the two Maricopa Unified Schools were not the only ones who failed to meet the AYP standards.

Legacy Traditional Charter school also failed because they were not able to meet the percent tested requirement.

Schools or districts that don’t meet AYP for two years in a row must improve by implementing a plan, such as changing curriculum.

File photo