Bioscience Excels, Four Schools Performing Plus in State Achievement Profiles

Bioscience High School earned an Excelling label for the second year, and four schools were Performing Plus in the state’s Arizona LEARNS Achievement Profile rankings for 2009.

Metro Tech registered Performing Plus for the second year in a row, joined by Cesar Chavez, Betty Fairfax and Franklin Police and Fire. It was the first year, Fairfax and Franklin qualified for labels. Both schools had sophomores and AIMS testing for the first time last year.

Another 10 schools were Performing, while one small school, Cyber High, received an Underperforming label, the first time in seven years that every Phoenix Union school did not receive Performing or better.

In the No Child Left Behind federal accountability measure, four schools showed Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP)— Bostrom and Metro Tech met for the third consecutive year, Bioscience for the second year, and Franklin Police and Fire met AYP in the first year of eligibility.

Bioscience, earned the top state ranking of Excelling by having a greater percentage of students scoring “exceeds” on the AIMS exams. A school’s percentage of students scoring the top score in AIMS is compared with the average percentage of “exceeds” scores per school in the state. For example, Bioscience had 88 percent of its students pass AIMS math, and 33% of those students “exceeded” the standards.

The small science and math school also had 96% pass reading, including 15% “exceeds.” In writing, 86% of the Bioscience students passed, with 12% of the students “exceeding.”

Performing Plus recognizes schools that have enough students demonstrating proficiency to earn a Highly Performing or Excelling profile, but do not have a sufficient number of students who “exceed” the AIMS standards.

The 10 Performing schools were Alhambra, Bostrom, Camelback, Carl Hayden, Central, Maryvale, North, South Mountain, Suns/Diamondbacks and Trevor Browne. Performing means that a school meets the state’s expectations with regard to student proficiency in reaching the state’s academic standards.

“The improved scores and resulting labels are a great tribute to our staff and students who are taking our district-wide college and career-prepared initiative so seriously. This is a reflection of our belief that given a rigorous curriculum and the necessary support, more students will exceed AIMS and more schools will become Performing Plus or Excelling,” Assistant Superintendent for Instruction and Accountability Dr. Deborah Gonzalez said.

The achievement profiles are part of the state’s accountability system that evaluates school performance based on AIMS results for 10th, 11th and 12th graders, five-year graduation and dropout rates. Credit is also given to schools that meet the federal government’s “Adequate Yearly Progress” requirement.

The Achievement Profiles are Underperforming, Performing, Performing Plus, Highly Performing and Excelling.

Meeting the federal AYP standards means that schools have met achievement targets on the 10th grade AIMS tests in math and reading, four-year graduation rates and have 95% or more test takers in each subgroup. Besides the overall 10th grade population, there are eight “sub groups” (Hispanic, Black, White, Asian, Native American, English Language Learners, Special Ed, and low income). For a school to meet AYP, it must meet AYP in each of 63 categories. If a school misses in one of those categories, the school does not meet AYP.

The schools that did not make AYP were Alhambra, Betty Fairfax, Camelback, Carl Hayden, Central, Cesar Chavez, Maryvale, North, South Mountain, and Trevor Browne.

Schools are designated according to the number of consecutive years a school fails to meet AYP. There is a Warning Year (Year 1), In School Improvement (Years 2-3) and Corrective Action (Year 4).

The goal of No Child Left Behind is to have 100 percent of the nation’s public education students proficient by 2014 through incremental gains each year.

2009 Arizona LEARNS Achievement Profiles

Central High - Performing

2008 No Child Left Behind Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP)

Central High - DNM AYP

Source: Phoenix Union High School District