86% Of Alabama Schools Make Annual Goals

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) - More Alabama schools have met
educational goals set under No Child Left Behind, with 86 percent
meeting all benchmarks.
Alabama education officials announced the 2009 Annual Yearly
Progress results Monday. The state's performance was a 3 percent
improvement over 2008.
The state also had fewer high-poverty schools singled out for
school improvement, which requires more supervision from state
officials to make sure plans to boost achievement are in place and
are being implemented.
Superintendent Joe Morton said the state's performance is
especially notable because the improvements are coming as standards
continue to rise.

Mobile County Public Schools are reaching their goals-ninety six percent of schools met Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP). The Alabama Department of Education released the 2009 spring testing and accountability results and 85 of 89 MCPSS schools met AYP. This is an improvement from 2008 -2009 results of 90%.

If a school does not meet AYP goals for two consecutive years, the school enters into School Improvement status. This year there are no Mobile County Public School System schools in school improvement. The system progressed from having 21 schools in school improvement in 2006, eight in 2007, four in 2008 to a current standing of zero in 2009. Denton Middle principal, Mr. Joe Toomey, one of the four schools that improved from last year credits Target Intervention. "We focused in on the those students who were close to making the score and we went over specific objectives until he (she) mastered it. With after school, during school and Saturday school, we kept going over it." Ms. Merrier Jackson, principal at Mae Eanes Middle school, could not find the words to describe how good it felt for her school to get out of school improvement after eight years, "This means so much for the community and students, after so long there became almost an institutionalized mind-set, but I knew their potential and now for them to read in the paper and see on television that they made it will be vindicating...this will elevate us and we will soar from this point."

Superintendent Dr. Roy Nichols has high praise for the Academic Affairs Division, the students, teachers and parents. "It takes everyone working together and putting forth their best effort. I am so very proud of the accomplishments that are not only recognized locally but also throughout the state, region and nation." He pointed out that MCPSS is featured in this month's The Journal of The Alabama Best Practices Center, under the headline-Mobile Engineers a Dynamic School System. Read more at http://www.bestpracticescenter.org/, plus more at http://www.abpc21.org/motm