Editor’s Note: The Tyler County Superintendent of Schools and the Tyler County Board of Education have issued the following press release concerning the performance of Tyler County students testing scores under “No Child Left Behind” guidelines.

* * * *

Tyler County is not alone is their struggle to make Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) under the Federal No Child Left Behind Act, which states that by 2014, all students will show proficiency on standardized tests, even those students with disabilities.

Each year, the percentage of students are expected to meet the proficiency target. While individual schools may show improvement, it is possible that they still may not meet AYP toward the 100 percent goal or their improvements may not be enough to meet the benchmark for that particular year.

This year, an additional 16 percent of students had to meet the proficiency level. In addition, this year the federal government required every state to use a new graduation calculation. Now states can only consider those students who finish in four years as graduates. Tyler County’s graduation rate for 2010-2011 was 81.54%, but all seniors graduated in 2011.

Two schools in Tyler County did not meet AYP for the 2010-2011 school year, Tyler Consolidated Middle School and Sistersville Elementary School. Both schools did not meet the benchmark in the area of Reading/Language Arts in the subgroup Low Socioeconomic Status. Tyler County currently has 503 students that fit into this subgroup.

Even though all schools did not meet AYP, Tyler County has shown growth from the 2009-2010 tests to the 2010-2011 tests in the All subgroup, and all schools are showing improvement in the areas of Reading/Language Arts and Math.

In state rankings for grades 3-11, Tyler County ranks sixth in Math, tenth in Reading/Language Arts, fourth in Science, and fourth in Social Studies.

In Reading/Language Arts, grades 5, 6, 7 ,8, 9, and 10 are showing growth in terms of the students at the proficiency level ranging from an increase of 2 to 20 percent. Our current eighth graders made significant strides with an increase of 20 percent. Grades 7, 9, and 10 all scored above the state average and above the annual measurable objectives.

In Math, grades 3, 4, 5, 7, 9, and 10 are all above the state average and annual measurable objectives. The percent of students in those grades showing proficiency show an increase ranging from 5 to 14 percent from the year before.

Teachers and administrators meet annually for two days during the summer looking at test results and developing improvement goals to raise the proficiency levels. In addition, students are released early on six days throughout the school year. Staff members utilize this time to monitor student achievement and progress toward these goals.

Parents of all students who participated in the WESTEST were sent home in early September their child’s individual NCLB Assessment Report along with a letter providing a brief description of each test and an explanation of the proficiency levels.

For more information regarding AYP and the No Child Left Behind legislation, please contact the West Virginia Department of Education or Tyler County Schools at 758-2145.