Brownwood ISD met the Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) standards for the federal school rating system this year.

There were mixed results of schools across Brown County in the AYP report, according to the Texas Education Agency.    In addition to Brownwood; Brookesmith ISD, May ISD, and Zephyr ISD also met AYP, but districts in Early, Bangs, and Blanket did not.  Almost 5,600 Texas schools met the AYP standards for the federal school rating system this year.

Schools and districts must have 80 percent or more of their students in grades 3-8 and 10 pass the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) reading or English language arts test and 75 percent must pass the TAKS mathematics test to meet AYP.

They also must achieve a 90 percent attendance rate or a 75 percent graduation rate, depending on the grade levels they serve.

AYP standards for 2011 are similar to the standards required to achieve a Recognized rating in the state accountability system.

“Statewide, our passing rates on the TAKS test largely held steady this year. Those results coupled with the elimination of Texas Projection Measure and rising federal standards caused fewer Texas schools to met AYP this year,” said Commissioner of Education Robert Scott.

As a result, 50 percent of the Texas school districts meet AYP in 2011, compared to 78 percent the previous year.

The most common reason that a Texas school missed AYP targets was because their students did not achieve both the required mathematics and reading passing rates. Missing the mathematics performance requirements alone was the second most common reason that a school received a missed AYP label. This is consistent with the 2011 state ratings in which mathematics performance was the most common reason that a school achieved an Academically Unacceptable.

Under the federal system, schools or districts that receive a missed AYP designation for two or more years and receive Title I funds, which are federal funds targeted to serve low income students, face sanctions.

If a Title I school misses AYP for two or more years for the same indicator, it moves into the School Improvement Program. The school improvement program categories range from Stage 1, which means a campus or district has missed targets for two years, to Stage 5, which means they have missed targets for six or more years. The sanctions and required interventions increase at each stage.

The preliminary AYP results show 249 districts and 242 schools at some level of school improvement intervention.

At Stage 1, school officials must approve a campus improvement plan and give students the option of transferring to another school. By Stage 5, the school must implement a major restructuring.

Details about the possible sanctions and interventions are available at http://www.tea.state.tx.us/index4.aspx?id=4459&menu_id=798.

AYP evaluations for each district and campus can be found at http://ritter.tea.state.tx.us/ayp/2011/index.html.