The Clanton Advertiser

Progress seems tough to come by on schools’ demanding Adequate Yearly Progress report cards.

Chilton County made some improvement this year as six local schools made AYP. Four schools reached the benchmark in each of the previous two years of reporting.

Chilton County High School, Isabella High School, Jemison Elementary School, Jemison Middle School, Jemison High School and Verbena High School made AYP.

“I feel like there’s some areas we’ve made progress in, but there’s still some things we need to do,” Superintendent Dave Hayden said.

Under the No Child Left Behind Act, each school has to meet 100 percent of its goals in each sub group to achieve AYP–missing one goal will prevent a school from making AYP.

“You can make a 92, that’s an ‘A,’ and you fail,” Hayden said. “It’s not striving for excellence; it’s striving for perfection.”

One school might have seven goals, while another might have 20 or more, depending on the school’s size, grade levels and other criteria.

The annual reports look at reading scores, math scores, percentage of students taking standardized tests, attendance records and graduation rates.

Not making AYP were Clanton Elementary School (95.24 percent of goals met), Clanton Intermediate School (95.24), Clanton Middle School (95.24), Maplesville High School (94.12) and Thorsby High School (78.26).

Schools that fail to make AYP two years in a row fall into the “School Improvement” category. Clanton Elementary School, Clanton Intermediate School, Clanton Middle School, Isabella High School and Thorsby High School were all listed in School Improvement.