JMCSS Members Discuss AYP Report
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Jackson-Madison County school leaders said they know they have work to do but the question is, which issue to tackle first? During the school board’s work session Monday, area principals saw first hand how the school district fared in the No Child Left Behind benchmark for the 2010-2011 school year. “If you cannot look it square in the eye and say, ‘That is a problem’ and identify it for what it is, you are just fooling yourself,” said board member Bill Baxter during Monday’s work session. “Across the state 50 percent of the schools did not make AYP. That is a big concern across the state and Jackson-Madison County is reflective of that,” said Director of Research and Accountability Allan Sterbinsky. Thirteen of the district’s 26 schools did not make AYP. However, what concerns school leaders more is the rising benchmark. Not one middle school in the district met AYP requirements. Knowing that fact, school officials believe a goal of 100 percent across the board in 2014 is out of the question. “When you have test scores like this, how do you drive those test scores up? We can dis-aggregate it. We can look at it in different ways but the question is what do you do,” asked Sterbinsky. “It boils down to a teacher interacting with a child, determining what do they need, delivering the need and then making sure that those needs are met.” During the work session, board members also voiced their concern about the lack of involvement parents have in their children’s education. “The question is, how do you get parents to be more involved,” said Sterbinsky. A strategic planning committee will meet with the superintendent on August,18 to discuss issues they believe need to be addressed first.
