You will find accompanying this letter on our website, information detailing the Mat-Su School District’s Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) for the 2007-2008 school year as determined through No Child Left Behind (NCLB). AYP is one indicator of a school’s success. A school and district must meet 31 performance targets in nine student subgroups in the areas of language arts, math, attendance, test participation, and graduation rates to make AYP.

The School District showed continued improvement for the 2007-2008 school year. The standard for the percentage of students scoring proficient in order to make AYP for 2007-2008 jumped significantly. Yet the number of schools consistent with last school year made AYP. Twenty-eight of the 41 schools in the district made AYP, whereas during the previous school year 28 of 38 schools made AYP.

Reviewing the individual school scores may raise the question, “Are schools that didn’t meet AYP failures?” The answer is, “No.” AYP designations do not define a school. In many instances, good schools did not make AYP due to a single missed target. By most measures, meeting 30 of 31 targets, a 96 percent passing rate, would be considered a success. Keep in mind that AYP calculations are based upon three days of testing once per year. Although we receive valuable feedback from the results, they are most meaningful when used with other forms of evaluation and assessment.

We know every school has room for improvement and we embrace that aspect of NCLB. We will improve student learning through the review of student data, professional learning communities, and identifying the learning needs of every child. The professional learning communities of teachers and administrators will design appropriate intervention for students not yet successful. Thank you for supporting our students, staff, and schools.

Sincerely,

George Troxel

Superintendent