School rating system would throw out "AYP"

Confusing talk about whether schools "made AYP (adequate yearly progress)" or "failed to make AYP" would be a thing of the past, should the Idaho State Department of Education's proposed new accountability system receive approval.

Melissa McGrath, spokesperson for the state education department, said focus group helped create the proposal, which calls for a new five-star scale to evaluate and recognize schools.

Previously, as called for under the existing No Child Left Behind law, school progress was based almost solely on student proficiency. In Idaho, it has been determined primarily by whether students passed or failed the state's standardized tests, the ISATs.

"One of the things we heard loud and clear was we need a new system for ranking schools," McGrath said.

The other item principals and other educators called for was a measurement of academic growth.

Students who come to school far below the proficiency benchmark often make significant strides during the school year, McGrath said, but still fall short of proficiency.

That growth has never been accounted for in evaluating school performance, she said. It will now be part of the equation.

Other new considerations that will go into evaluating schools will be how well high school students perform on college entrance exams, the SAT or ACT, and student enrollment in advanced courses, which would include International Baccalaureate, Advanced Placement, dual credit or professional-technical classes.