Schools
Nazareth Schools Achieve Progress Goals for 2010-11
All Nazareth schools in the district achieved Adequate Yearly Progress goals as outlined by the No Child Left Behind Act.
All Nazareth Area schools achieved Adequate Yearly Progress, or AYP, goals for the 2010-11 school year, the district administration announced Monday.
The AYP goals are part of the federal No Child Left Behind Act. To achieve AYP, all students, as well as every subgroup of 40 or more students, must score at the Advanced or Proficient levels on the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment test, better known as PSSA. The targets for 2011 are 67 percent in mathematics and 72 percent in reading.
Nazareth met or exceeded those targets at every grade level that took the PSSA, in every school in which students were tested and within every subgroup, said Assistant Superintendent Michael Roth.
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Roth's announcement drew smiles and praise from school board members.
“A lot of hard work went into that accomplishment,” said Maurice Heller, board vice president.
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District Superintendent Victor Lesky heaped praise on the district's teachers, staff and other administrators.
“I'd like to personally commend our staff,” Lesky said. “The results are starting to show.”
The district's teachers will likely get a pep talk on how well they prepared their students to meet the AYP challenge on the teachers' first day back at work on Aug. 25.
Board member Darrell Crook, who noted there is not enough publicity about good news in the district, suggested the district should “celebrate” the AYP achievement on the teachers' first day.
Lesky cautioned that meeting AYP goals will get tougher in the next few years. The target percentages of students scoring Advanced or Proficient will rise each year, he noted.
“That will be a challenge,” he said, adding that as the legislation now stands, 100 percent of students will be required to score Advanced or Proficient by 2015 for districts to meet AYP.
“As we know, that is an impossible feat,” Lesky said.
He encouraged legislators to amend the No Child Left Behind Act to focus more on an “individual growth model” that does not depend solely on statistics to measure progress.
“Hopefully, there will be more realistic goals in the future,” he said.
and each of the district's three elementary schools achieved nine out of nine AYP goals, while both the intermediate school and middle school achieved 17 out of 17 AYP goals, Roth said.
The district will receive its “report card” from the state Education Department in October, giving a full picture of where Nazareth Area stands academically, Roth added.