Gentry schools come up short on state's AYP requirements

GENTRY — Adequate Yearly Progress information has been officially released and Gentry School District failed to meet the rising bar in a number of categories.

The high school is on the targeted improvement list because the Caucasian population in the school missed the AYP goal in literacy (tested in 11th grade) by .8 percent.

Gentry Middle School was placed on alert, with no sanctions, because the Hispanic population atthe school failed to meet the set AYP goal in literacy and math. The school was also placed on alert due to the failure of the special education students to meet AYP in math.

Gentry Intermediate School was targeted for improvement because students whose primary language is not English failed to meet the district's AYP goal in math. The school was also placed on alert status because of failures of Hispanic students and students classified as economically disadvantaged to meet AYP goals.

Though the primary school is not included in the No Child Left Behind testing, it received the same designations as the Intermediate School because it is a feeder school, with students from the Primary School promoted to the Intermediate School.

Though not meeting AYP in all categories and student sub-populations is cause for concern, it must be remembered that AYP goals rise each year and will soon require 100 percent of students to be proficient or advanced.