No Child Left Behind catches up to SMSD

This year marked the ninth year of the No Child Left Behind Act and it’s Adequate Yearly Progress, or AYP, guidelines. For the first time in nine years, Shawnee Mission School District failed to meet its AYP targets.

AYP is a nation wide guideline for all public schools. It states that every year until 2014, a school must meet increasingly rigorous test scores.

In the 2009-2010 school year, five schools and the district as a whole failed to meet the AYP targets of 76.5 percent proficiency in all subjects. Despite the district failing to meet guidelines, nine out of 10 SMSD students passed AYP with high marks.

The five district schools that failed AYP were Westridge, Hocker Grove, and Antioch Middle Schools, along with Nieman and Shawanoe Elementary Schools.

East’s scores were well above AYP standards, with 94.2 proficiency in math and 96 percent proficiency in English. However, East’s math proficiency, 95.9 percent, saw a two percent drop since last year. All East feeder schools also passed AYP.

Principal Dr. Karl Krawitz places East’s success on the school having a lack of subgroups. A subgroup is a group of 30 students or more that fit into a certain category, such as English language learners and students that need free or reduced lunches, circumstances that would keep many students in these subgroups from focusing on AYP.

Krawitz believes this makes subgroup students more prone to failing to meet AYP standards. A jump in the number of subgroup students could lower East’s AYP scores in the future.

“We could literally not make AYP because of one [subgroup] student.” Krawitz said. “But it’s not really fair. A student who can’t afford to eat lunch everyday shouldn’t have to focus on [AYP] tests.”