Loudoun Schools make Adequate Yearly Progress

By Elizabeth Coe

As a division, Loudoun County Public Schools made Adequate Yearly Progress this year for the first time under terms defined by federal No Child Left Behind legislation.

AYP has been a national measure of school system accountability since the 2003-2004 school year.

The 2008 AYP statistics, based on Virginia Standards of Learning (SOL) testing, were released Aug. 27.

Under AYP, 1,960 test cells are measured. LCPS students exceeded the minimum pass rates in 1,955 of these cells, a 99.7 percent pass rate.

LCPS students posted gains in almost every test area. The results:

Kindergarten-fifth grade

The English pass rate rose to 91.45 percent up from 86.91. (The minimum pass rate was 77 percent.)

The math pass rate rose to 92.82 percent from 91.53 percent. (The minimum pass rate was 75 percent.)

Sixth-eighth grade

The sixth through eighth grade English pass rate rose to 90.45 from 88.63. (The minimum pass rate was 77 percent.)
The math pass rate increased to 87.71 percent from 83.67 percent. (The minimum pass rate was 75 percent.)

Ninth-12th grade

The ninth through 12th grade English pass rate decreased from 95.34 percent to 93.83 percent. (The minimum pass rate was 77 percent.)
The math score also went down, from 92.83 percent to 91.22. (The minimum pass rate was 75 percent.)

The Loudoun County School Board has a goal of 90 percent of Loudoun's students passing their SOL tests. This goal was met in every area but sixth through eighth grade math.
Achievement levels among almost all classifications of students rose when compared with three-year averages and the previous school year. (The graduation rate needed to make AYP was 61 percent, a figure all groups in LCPS surpassed.)
The result by classification is as follows:
All students

All students had a pass rate of 91.91 percent in English, up from 89.91 percent in 2007 and above the three-year average of 90.09 percent.
In math, the percentage passing was 87.86, up from 84.73 in 2007 and higher than the three-year rate of 84.75.

African-American students

African-American students passed the English SOLs in 2008 at a rate of 83.65 percent. This was higher than the 2007 figure (79.61 percent) and the three-year average (78.80).
The pass rate in math was 75 percent. That was up from 70.92 percent in 2007 and the 70.24 three-year average.

Hispanic students

Hispanic students had an 80.79 pass rate on English SOLs compared to 73.55 percent in 2007 and a three-year average of 75.98 percent.
The pass rate on math SOLs was 74.87 percent in 2008. It was 69.27 percent in 2007 and the three-year average was 70.17 percent.

Limited English proficient students

Limited English proficient students had a pass rate of 73.08 on English SOLs in 2008. That figure was better than the 2007 rate of 60.65 percent and the three-year average of 65.92.
The math pass rate was 72.23 percent, above the 2007 rate of 65.17 and three-year average of 67.38.

Students identified as disadvantaged

Students identified as disadvantaged had a pass rate on English SOLs of 76.81 percent. This was higher than the 2007 figure of 68.41 and the three-year average of 71.05.
In math, the pass rate was 70.86 percent, up from 64.47 in 2007 and above the three-year average of 65.76.

Students with disabilities

Students with disabilities had an English pass rate of 69.76 percent, up from 64.38 percent in 2007 and greater than the three-year average of 65.83 percent.
The math pass rate was 67.26, compared with 60.17 in 2007 and a three-year average of 60.88.

White students

White students had an English pass rate of 95.08 percent. This was higher than the the 2007 rate of 93.87 and the three-year average of 93.92.
The math pass rate was 91.26 in 2008, up from 88.58 in 2007 and greater than the three-year average of 88.48.

Schools that did not make AYP in 2008 include Seneca Ridge, J. Lupton Simpson and Sterling middle schools. Thirty-two LCPS schools did not make AYP the first year it was measured.

-- Elizabeth Coe