By FULLER ROYAL

The release earlier this month of the preliminary test scores for the 2005-06 school year highlights several groups of students that continue to stop short of being considered proficient in their studies.

With only their reading test results to go by, eight schools in the Columbus County system and one school in the Whiteville City system made Adequate Yearly Progress with the No Child Left Behind Act.

There are 24 schools in the combined systems and the majority of the schools made AYP when the program first began.

Since that time, the state mandates that every three years, the percentage of students working at levels of proficiency grow.

The bar was raised for the first time during the 2004-05 school year.

In grades three through eight, at least 76.7 percent of students have to be proficient in reading and 81 percent proficient in math.

For school year 2007-08, at least 84.4 percent in the lower grades must be proficient in reading and 87.3 percent in math – significant increases.

Had this been the year of the increase, no school in Columbus County or Whiteville would have made AYP.

The 2005-06 math scores will not be released by the state until October. Local administrators and principals are hoping that math results will not alter the status of the nine local schools that made AYP.

In most cases, the schools that did not make AYP failed to do so because one or more of their subgroups failed to make AYP.

There are 10 possible subgroups at each school. For a subgroup to count, it must have at least 40 students who have attended school there for at least 120 days.

Subgroups include all students, American Indian students, Asian students, black students, Hispanic students, white students, students on free or reduced lunch, students with limited English proficiency and students with disabilities.

Schools also have attendance goals to meet and at least 95 percent of each subgroup must take the reading and math end-of-course tests.

Every school in the county and city has the all-students subgroup. Fifteen elementary and middle schools met their goals in this category. Five of these met the AYP goals with special conditions applied where the state takes into account significant growth or the inconsistencies of testing a small student pollution.

Those schools are considered to have met their AYP goals with Safe Harbor or Confidence Intervals.

Of the high schools, Whiteville was the only one to meet its AYP goals in both reading and math in the all-students category.

It eventually failed to make AYP because of the 182 students who were supposed to take the math portion of the test, only 164, or 90 percent, were tested. The state requires that 95 percent be tested.

South Columbus High School met its AYP goals for reading in the all-students category. East Columbus High School met its AYP goals for math in the all-students category.

In the subgroup American Indian, the only two schools with enough American Indian students to qualify as sub-groups – Hallsboro-Artesia Elementary and Hallsboro Middle schools – met their AYP goals. The remaining schools had few or no American Indian students.

There were none or few Asian students at all of the schools.

Black students in 10 schools met their AYP goals.

None of the black student subgroups in the county’s high schools met their AYP goals. WHS’s black students met their AYP goals.

Acme-Delco and Edgewood elementary schools were the only elementary schools whose black students failed to meet their AYP goals.

At Cerro Gordo, Williams Township, Old Dock, Guideway and Boys and Girls Homes elementary schools, there were not enough black students to count as subgroups.

There were not enough Hispanic or multi-racial students at any school to count as a subgroup.

At every school where there were enough white students to be measured as subgroups, they met their AYP goals.

At Boys and Girls Homes, Chadbourn, Fair Bluff and Hallsboro-Artesia elementary schools, there were not enough white students to count as subgroups.

WCHS, SCHS and WHS white students met their AYP goals. There were not enough white students tested at ECHS to count toward a subgroup. Subsequently the school failed to meet the testing percentage goal.

In the free or reduced lunch category, students at 13 schools met their goals. Only WHS’s free or reduced lunch students met their AYP goals.

None of the schools had enough students with limited English proficiency to be counted in their own subgroups.

Of the students with disabilities, only Central Middle School’s students met their AYP goals. Only five other schools had enough students in this category to count as a subgroup.

All of the schools met their attendance goals.