All Floyd County Schools met the federal benchmarks for Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) for 2009.  Floyd County Schools was one of only 46 school systems in the state with all schools making AYP. It was significant that a system the size of Floyd County, with four high schools, had all schools make AYP.  This year, only a little over 47 percent of the state's high schools made AYP. The school system continued its consistent performance on the No Child Left Behind report for AYP released by the Georgia Department of Education on Tuesday, July 14, 2009.  The system did not make AYP due to missing one benchmark of the 100 set by the state. All students at a school, as well as any qualifying subgroup of students, must meet goals in all three categories in order to "make AYP." Schools that do not make AYP for two consecutive years in the same subject are placed in "Needs Improvement" status and face escalating consequences. For more information on AYP, go to http://tinyurl.com/AYPFAQ2009.    No schools in Floyd County were listed as “Needs Improvement” in 2009.  All schools can make AYP and the system not make AYP as a result of subgroups not being large enough to count at the school level but combined the group being large enough to count at the system level.

Overall, the system performed well above AYP guidelines by producing a graduation rate of 77.5% for all students.  Floyd County Schools has raised the graduation rate from 73.1% in 2007 to 77.5% for all students in 2009.  Armuchee High School posted the highest graduation rate in 2009 at 80.5%.  Coosa High had a graduation rate of 75.2%, Model High was at 78.0% and Pepperell High was 77.0%.  All high schools in the system were above the 75% threshold required for AYP.

The one indicator keeping the system from making AYP was within the graduation rate category in the subgroup of students with disabilities.  Not making AYP in the subgroup did not mean that students did not graduate in the subgroup for students with disabilities but that a large enough percentage of the group did not meet the goal of graduating with a regular diploma.  This is a problem that Floyd County Schools has addressed with the state.  The state sanctions a special education diploma but it is not recognized by the Governor’s Office of Student Achievement for AYP graduation.  GOSA only recognizes regular diplomas.  The system plans to hire a graduation specialist before the beginning of school to work with students with disabilities at all four high schools.  The graduation specialist will be hired using part of the stimulus funding received by the school system.  The focus of the specialist will be to work with students with disabilities to improve academic performance and increase the number of students completing high school with a regular diploma.   

To make AYP, the system must meet benchmarks on participation, test scores on standardized tests, graduation rate for high schools and attendance for K-8 schools.  With all subgroups included, there are exactly 100 indicators that school systems must meet.  Comparing past years, Floyd County made 90 out of the 100 AYP indicators in 2003,  98 of 100 in 2004, 98 of 100 in 2006, and 96 0f 100 in 2008.  The system made AYP in 2005 and 2007 by meeting all 100 indicators. 

The No Child Left Behind Act is a federal law that holds the basic belief that every child can learn and that no child should be left behind.  Georgia uses the Criterion-Referenced Competency Tests (CRCT) as the AYP assessment tool for the elementary and middle grades.  The Georgia High School Graduation Test (GHSGT) is the assessment tool for high schools.  The state also uses a secondary indicator for schools.  For Floyd County Schools, the secondary indicator is attendance in elementary and middle schools and the graduation rate for high schools.  You can view the complete AYP report on the Georgia Department of Education Web site at http://www.gadoe.org/ayp2009.aspx.