Douthitt requesting AYP review
Published 6:35 pm Friday, August 5, 2011
Butler County School Superintendent Darren Douthitt is asking the Alabama State Department of Education “to fix what is broken.”
Douthitt has requested that the department review Georgiana School’s Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) assessment.
“I’ve talked to the coordinator of assessment and asked them to take a closer look at the numbers,” Douthitt said.
Georgiana School met 16 of the 17 goals required under No Child Left Behind, but the one missed goal was enough to keep the school from making AYP.
The lone goal not met was the school’s graduation rate. Georgiana’s graduation rate for 2011 was 88 percent. That’s a 4 percent increase from 2010, when the school was referred to as Butler County Magnet School, and a six percent increase from 2009.
Still, it was just short of the goal of 90 percent set by NCLB. Douthitt believes the increase was enough for the Alabama State Department of Education to give the school a passing AYP mark.
“In my mind there is no doubt that Georgiana should have made AYP,” Douthitt said. “Normally, if a school gets any improvement in an area it’s recorded as meeting its goal. I believe that Georgiana has made significant improvement in its graduation rate and that it should not be something that keeps the school from making AYP.”
Douthitt said he expects a written response from the Alabama State Department of Education within the week, but expects a final decision to take up to a month.