RALEIGH -- Only 22 of Wake County's 163 schools reached proficiency standards under the federal "No Child Left Behind" law in the 2010-2011 school year, according to preliminary state department of education statistics released today.
Seventeen elementary school and one middle school, Wakefield, met the standard, which is set higher each academic year. The only high schools to meet the goals were the two small high schools at East Wake and the Wake Early High School of Health and Sciences.
The schools' progress is measured by the academic gains of as many as nine subgroups, dividing the school population by ethnic background, disability, English proficiency and disability. If one group fails to reach what's called "adequate yearly progress," the entire school is found to have failed.
"No Child Left Behind is designed so that schools that miss their AYP target with only one group of their students are considered to have missed the AYP target overall," State Superintendent June Atkinson said in a statement. "This 'all or nothing' structure of the federal law guarantees that we will see an increasing number of schools missing the elusive Met AYP designation."
In information presented last Friday, Superintendent Tony Tata predicted a drop in Wake schools' making adequate progress.
To meet targets, students in grades 3-8 had to increase from 77.2 percent to 88.6 percent proficiency and reading students in the same grades had to improve from an average of 43.2 percent proficiency to 71.6 percent.
Schools that receive federal Title I funding for low-income children and fail to meet average yearly progress standards for two years in a row face a variety of sanctions including being made to offer tutoring services, giving students a chance to leave for a better school, and restructuring of the school.
