Kudo’s to Melzer and Washington Schools for beating the AYP odds eight-years running!

I just wanted to take a moment to congratulate the teachers and administrators of Melzer and Washington schools for their eight-year string of AYP wins.

You’ll notice I used a sports metaphor when describing these Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) outcomes. Personally I find a sports analogy appropriate because as most everyone in the education business knows, the goal of the AYP testing is not just about education, it’s now about winning, and schools and districts will do whatever it takes to win, to pass.  Even the Illinois State Board of Education unwittingly eludes to AYP as sport with the following headline:

“October 29, 2010 Illinois students continue to make steady progress on state tests Despite student improvement, fewer schools and districts making AYP as NCLB performance targets continue to increase 211schools and 56 districts beat the odds to make AYP this year, despite missing the target last year” schools and 56 districts beat the odds to make AYP this year, despite missing the target last year”

No Child Left Behind (NCLB) as designed was never a good idea.  Not to say that schools should not be held accountable for academic achievement and/or no standard of excellence should exist.  However, no matter how bad it is, NCLB is the law.  One result of NCLB and the need for meeting AYP, is that it has caused many honorable school district administrators to manipulate the system lest they risk their personal and districts reputation by being placed on their states watch list.

Does any of this diminish the Melzer and Washington achievement, absolutely not.

But what about the rest of EMSD#63?

Data derived from Illinois Interactive Report Cards

AYP Yrs 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010                   District N/A No Yes Yes Yes No No No                   Apollo No Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No Gemini No No No Yes Yes No No No Mark Twain No Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes No Melzer Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Nelson Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Stevenson Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No Yes Washington Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes

Based on multi-year results, District #63 still has a long way to go, having failed AYP four out of seven years.  Will more real-estate tax money make the difference?  I doubt it.  I don’t believe that money is the issue.  Maybe a change in Apollo and Gemini Leadership, along with the implementation of a fundamentals based teaching strategy might help though. 

So once again, Kudo’s to Melzer and Washington Schools for beating the AYP odds eight-years running!