JMCSS Releases AYP Data
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Jackson-Madison County School officials released the 2010-2011 Adequate Yearly Progress report Friday. Although the district as a whole failed to make AYP, school officials said there have been improvements. According to the report, 13 out of 26 district schools failed to meet the “No Child Left Behind” benchmark requirements. Director of Schools Buddy White said it is partly due to a 20 percent benchmark raise since the year before. However the district’s numbers are echoed across the state. “[Throughout the state] half of our schools failed to make AYP and most of those schools improved in reading and math scores,” said White. That fact lead Governor Bill Haslam and other state leaders to formally submit a request to Washington Friday for a waiver of AYP rules and regulations. “I personally agree that we have a difficult challenge in front of us,” said White. “I think the commissioner feels like the goals we have set before us of 100 percent by 2014, which is very close to us, from the current place that we are in, in the state of Tennessee is extremely challenging. Perhaps we need goals that, although they are challenging, are also ones that we might reach.” In the meantime, White said the school district is changing the way they work to reach these higher goals and improvements can already be seen district wide. “We have a strategic plan effort that should give us some extra tools and each principal has been challenged to decide how they can improve their school and to let us know how we can support that,” said White. The state’s waiver proposal will not be implemented until the 2012-2013 school year, however state officials have stated they do not know how the process will unfold.
