By FULLER ROYAL
Staff Writer

Only five of the 19 Columbus County Schools earned Adequate Yearly Progress in the federal government’s No Child Left Behind (NCLB) program for School Year 2006-07.

Meeting 100 percent of their NCLB goals at each school were Chadbourn Middle School, Old Dock Elementary School and Williams Township School.

East Columbus High School and West Columbus High School, both on a state watch list for low-performing high schools, also made AYP.

The two high schools’ AYP status surprised local officials. Both schools have been receiving special assistance from the state because of low scores on the state’s end-of-grade tests. WCHS is on a list of schools that could face state takeover in the near future.

Because both schools failed to make AYP for two consecutive years, they are classified as Title I Improvement schools. After each successive year in Title I Improvement, schools must reorganize and change their methods. Eventually, the local school system or the state could step in with a drastic action such as taking over or closing the school.
It takes two consecutive years of making AYP for a school to pull itself out of Title I Improvement.

Students enrolled in Title I Improvement schools must be offered a chance to attend schools that are not in Title I Improvement. Only Old Dock Elementary, Evergreen Elementary and Acme-Delco Elementary are not in Title I improvement. Every other K-8 student in the county had to be offered a chance to attend one of those three schools.

Superintendent Dan Strickland said that fewer than two dozen of the students had accepted the offer.

As local and state administrators predicted, a growing number of schools in North Carolina failed to make AYP this past year. And when the minimum proficiency target goals are raised this coming year, as much as 90 percent of North Carolina’s schools could fail to make AYP with little hope of ever achieving the federally mandated goal of 100 percent proficiency in reading and math by year 2013.

Brunswick County’s Charter Day School, the parent school of Columbus Charter School, operated by Roger Bacon Academy, made AYP.

In Brunswick County, seven out of 16 schools made AYP.
In Bladen County, six out of 13 schools made AYP.
In New Hanover County, 14 out of 35 schools made AYP.
In Pender County, 10 out of 14 schools made AYP.
In Cumberland County, 27 schools out of 88 made AYP.
In Scotland County, nine out of 20 schools made AYP.
In Wake County, 52 out of 121 schools made AYP.
Several of the best showings were in the smaller city school systems.
While Whiteville’s scores are not known, it had been projected earlier in the summer that four of its five schools would make AYP.

Clinton City had four of its five schools make AYP.

Strickland said that Columbus County students overcame great odds to meet the performance goals mandated by NCLB.
To make AYP not only must the school as a whole be proficient in reading and math, but each of nine other subgroups must be proficient.

Those subgroups include white students, black students, Hispanic students, students with learning disabilities and poor students.

The law is set up so that one student in any subgroup could keep an entire school from earning AYP.
At one of Columbus County’s schools, if one more student in a subgroup had scored a Level III in math instead of a Level II, that entire school would have scored AYP.

The law set 279 goals for 2006- 2007 and the county’s students met 86 percent of the goals.
Strickland praised the parents, teachers, principals and support staff on their attention to students’ needs during the 2006-07 school year.

“NCLB has set very high goals,” Strickland said. “It requires all subgroups of students – such as children with disabilities, economically disadvantaged, limited English proficient to meet the reading and mathematics standards. If one group does not meet the standard, the entire school fails.”

Eight schools did not meet the goals because only two or three subgroups fell short. Nakina Alternative School and Southeastern Early College’s statuses are unavailable due to special evaluations not yet conducted by the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction.

“Columbus County Schools will continue working with all students to help them meet the NCLB goals,” Strickland said. “We will use a variety of methods with students who struggle.

“We will also work to improve the performance of students with strong academic potential.”

Strickland said that focused efforts for the new school year include the implementation of: a math science partnership grant which allows for two math facilitators; an Early Reading First Grant which will provide additional resources for preschoolers; an online professional development program; Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID), a grades 4-12 program allowing students with average performance to be placed in advance classes which prepares them for college eligibility and success and SAS EVAAS, a diagnostic reporting program for grades K-12 administrators.

Also, the system will develop a district science strategic plan to implement inquiry-based science strategies and create a school-ready task force to ensure that all children entering school for the first time are guaranteed a developmentally appropriate setting that is conducive to their individual needs.

Strickland said that the system will use the University of North Carolina at Greensboro’s new iSchool Virtual Early College, a program that will allow county high school juniors and seniors to take introductory-level UNCG courses and earn both university and high school credit.

The county will continue work with Talent Development, a program that redesigns high schools with components such as freshman academy, career academy and provides attention to individualized needs and interests.

The county will also use N.C. Virtual Public High Schools, an expansion of participation of N.C. Public Schools, which affords students the opportunity to enroll in courses that may not be offered in their high school.

“One of the requirements of NCLB is to allow school choice in schools which meet less than 100 percent of their goals for two years in a row, Strickland said.

“Last year, parents of students in six schools were offered school choice. Seventeen parents chose a different school,” he said. “This year, parents in three additional schools will be offered a choice. Letters have been mailed to parents in those schools. The letters describe the law’s requirements– and what their choices are.”
Whiteville’s AYP scores were not available by Friday’s story deadline.