Small Town News

Looking deeper at the LHS AYP Scores

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Courtesy submission

The New Mexico Public Education Department has released Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) results. By now, everyone should know that Lordsburg High School fell short of meeting Annual AYP standards, but did show progress.

"As Juniors, we all worked really hard to meet AYP standards and stayed after school, as many as three times a week to be tutored for math", said senior class president, Denette Mora.

Math proficiency at the high school nearly doubled from the previous year to 26.67%, but failed to meet the AYP standard of 57%.

"There are some good things going on here at LHS", said Math teacher, Armando Rosales. "We were the only school in our district to improve by that large of a percentage."

The Lordsburg School District is planning to appeal to the state in order to correct the 59.3% graduation rate, which left several students in the class of 2010 unaccounted for.

Because Lordsburg High School's reading proficiency was nearly tripled from 2009 to 75.56%, it is likely that the High School would be placed into the "corrective action" designation, rather than their current designation as a "Restructuring 1" school. In reading, LHS met AYP with 75.56% out of a goal of 64 making LHS one of the top scoring schools in New Mexico for this area.

"A proficiency of 75.56% in reading is rarely heard of and places our students among other high ranking schools like Cloudcroft," said staff member, Phyllis McDonald. "I've never seen higher in my 18 years at LHS. Reading scores have been a constant struggle."

When LHS reading scores are compared to other high schools in southwestern New Mexico, LHS ranks 2nd behind only Cloudcroft, who came out ahead by just four one hundredths of a percent.

"I am happy with our results and hope that we have helped move the school in the right direction", said senior, Kayla Newell.

The AYP target goals move higher each year, and by 2014 all schools in the nation are expected to be 100 percent proficient in Math and Reading. This year, in New Mexico only 22.1 percent of schools met AYP. Each year the number meeting the AYP goal goes down as the AYP target goes up.

There are 37 ways to miss AYP according to the New Mexico Public Education Department. If a school misses in any one area then it fails to meet AYP.



Copyright 2010 Hidalgo County Herald, Lordsburg, New Mexico. All Rights Reserved. This content, including derivations, may not be stored or distributed in any manner, disseminated, published, broadcast, rewritten or reproduced without express, written consent from SmallTownPapers, Inc.

© 2011 Hidalgo County Herald Lordsburg, New Mexico. All Rights Reserved. This content, including derivations, may not be stored or distributed in any manner, disseminated, published, broadcast, rewritten or reproduced without express, written consent from DAS.

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