Scotland County Schools made AYP – Adequate Yearly Progress – standards at three times last year's rate, according to the preliminary data.

Andy Cagle, spokesman for the school system, says 75 percent of schools made AYP. Only a quarter of schools made AYP in 2008.

All 10 elementary schools, two of three middle schools, two of six high schools and East Laurinburg Alternative Academy made AYP in 2009, according to the figures.

Only six schools, all elementary schools, made AYP in 2008.

"I think its proof that we are moving in the right direction with a lot of things we're doing," Cagle said. "Everyone is doing good things ... [teachers and students] are really working hard."

Cagle stressed that the numbers are unofficial.

"These are preliminary results," Cagle said. "They won't be approved by the state until Aug. 6"

Cagle noted that the Ninth Grade Academy does not have AYP targets because targets for high schools are based on graduation rates and testing in the tenth grade, neither of which are applicable to the school.

Data explained

Making AYP is based on all the targets being met by a school, according to Ed Williams, director of testing and accountability.

Williams, referred to as "the guru of testing" by his peers, says the targets are derived from different groups meeting specific criteria.

He says schools are first broken down into as many as 10 different subgroups.

Possible subgroups are:

• The school as a whole

• White

• Black

• Native American

• Asian/Pacific Islander

• Hispanic

• Multiracial

• Limited English Proficient

• Students with Disabilities

• Economically Disadvantaged Students

Students count towards all applicable subgroups, and automatically count towards two subgroups – a student's school and racial group. Any group of 40 or more is used for AYP reports.

For each subgroup, the school has four targets, two for each the math and reading test. The first target is at least 95 percent of students must take the test and the second target is for a student to be proficient.

Proficiency targets for the 200-2009 school year for third through eighth graders are 43.2 percent of students being proficient in reading and 77.2 percent being proficient in math. For tenth graders, 38.5 percent must be proficient in reading and language arts and 68.4 percent must be proficient in math.

For elementary and middle schools, the overall school has a target to either improve its attendance rate by 1.0 percent or have an average attendance rate over 90.0 percent. For high schools, graduation rates are used instead of attendance.

Williams said that, for a school that had two subgroups, there would be nine targets.

Late Release

This year's preliminary AYP data was released later than in previous years.

In a press release from the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, Communications Director Vanessa Jeter explains the time discrepancy.

She says several changes this year that have delayed the release of AYP data.

Part of the delay came from the use of retests in the initial AYP computation.

"Beginning with the 2008-09 accountability cycle, results of students' first retest will be used in the calculation of AYP results for grades 3-8," Jeter said. "The higher of the two scores will be used to calculate AYP. As a result, 2008-09 AYP results for elementary and middle schools will not be comparable with previous years' results."

She also says a new approach to calculating AYP for the students with disabilities subgroup delayed the release.

"Schools with a 'Students with Disabilities' student group that do not initially make AYP will be allowed to incorporate the scores of students in the Exceptional Children program who exited the program within the last two years," Jeter said. "This same approach has been in place for several years for limited English proficient students."

Jeter added that the release still "allows time for Title I schools to notify parents in cases where the parents have the option of public school choice or supplemental educational services under [the No Child Left Behind Act]."