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Press releaseSALT LAKE CITY - About nine out of every 10 Utah public schools are making the grade both in the state's Utah Performance Assessment System for Students (U-PASS) and the federal No Child Left Behind adequate yearly progress assessment systems, the Utah State Office of Education announced today.
Among elementary and middle schools, 644 of the 706 schools, or 91 percent, were performing effectively, according to U-PASS measures. That is up from 85 percent in 2008. For high schools, 198 of 235, or 84 percent were up to specified performance levels. That's down from 94 percent in 2008. On the federal side, 87 percent of all schools made adequate yearly progress, which is up from 80 percent in 2008.
To meet U-PASS standards, schools must test 95 percent of all of its students as well as 95 percent of each of its demographic subgroup populations represented in the school by 10 or more students. Schools must also either have 77 percent of their students (elementary and middle schools) or 72 percent of their students (high schools) proficient in core subjects or be making sufficient progress toward proficiency.
To meet No Child Left Behind standards, schools must also test 95 percent of students and students in each of its demographic subgroups. They must also meet specific standards set in the program. In grades 3-8, this year's target was to have 83 percent of students proficient in language arts; that's up from 77 percent last year. Eighty-two percent of high school sophomores had to be proficient in language arts, which is up from 76 percent last year. Because Utah increased the rigor of its math curriculum in 2009, the U.S. Department of Education approved moving the proficiency targets down to 45 percent in grades 3-8 and to 40 percent in grades 10-12 from 78 and 72 percent, respectively, which is what it would have been in 2009 without the curriculum change. Students are still expected to be 100 percent proficient in math and language arts by the 2014 school year, according to No Child Left Behind rules.
Schools that fail to make adequate yearly progress in the No Child Left Behind program for two consecutive or more years are placed in program improvement. Schools are removed from the improvement list with two consecutive years of adequate yearly progress. This year there are 9 schools in the first year of improvement, three in the second year for a total of 12 schools, down a total of three schools from 2008.
For individual school results on either the U-PASS or the No Child Left Behind system, please visit http://u-pass.schools.utah.gov/u-passweb/
(Courtesy of Utah State Office of Education)
