NCLB Report Cards

As part of the Pennsylvania Accountability System and in compliance with federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), Pennsylvania and all districts and schools within the Commonwealth are required to create report cards each school year.

The Pennsylvania Accountability System applies to all public schools and districts. It is based upon the state’s content and achievement standards, valid and reliable measures of academic achievement, and other key indicators of school and district performance such as attendance and graduation rates. The Pennsylvania Accountability System meets the requirements of the federal No Child Left Behind Act and has the same end goal - having every child in the Commonwealth proficient or above in reading and mathematics by the year 2014.

Schools are evaluated on a minimum target level of improvement on the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment test called Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP). A key additional feature of the Pennsylvania Accountability System is that it allows both a school’s absolute level of achievement (the proportion of students who score at or above the proficient level), and a school’s growth in achievement from one year to the next to be recognized.

Meeting Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP)

The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) requires that all groups of children reach proficiency in Reading and Math. The three AYP measures in 2012 are:

School Attendance (for schools without a high school graduating class): Goal of 90% or target of any improvement from previous year.
Graduation Rate (for schools with a high school graduating class): The school and every measurable subgroup in the school must meet the goal of 85%, or a 10% reduction of the difference between the previous year’s graduation rate and 85%. Districts must meet both measures; attendance and graduation.
Achieving Proficiency (Performance):
To meet the Performance Measure required for AYP, schools and every measurable subgroup in the school must have at least 78% of the tested students achieve a Proficient score or higher on the mathematics assessment and 81% of the tested students achieve a Proficient score or higher on the reading assessment.
Taking the Test (Participation):
At least 95% of students overall and within each measurable subgroup must take the test.

For a school to meet AYP, all AYP measures must be met. Note that the number of goals and targets used for AYP can vary. This is because the measures associated with subgroups that have fewer than 40 students in the school do not apply. However, schools with fewer than 40 students are still accountable and are evaluated in the All Students Group.

School district measures are assessed in three grade spans: Grades 3–5, 6–8, and 9–12. To meet AYP measures in Academic Performance or Test Participation, the school district needs to achieve all goals/targets for both subjects in one grade span only. School districts must meet both measures in school attendance and graduation.

Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) Goals for Core Subject Results:

Year	2002-04	2005-07	2008-10	2011	2012	2013	2014
Percent Advanced & Proficient in Reading	45	54	63	72	81	91	100
Percent Advanced & Proficient in Mathematics	35	45	56	67	78	89	100

Minimum Number of Students in a Subgroup:
The minimum number of students for subgroups is 10 for reporting purposes and 40 for accountability. A group of 40 allows a maximum number of schools to be included while also assuring the reliability and validity of decisions driven by the data.

Last Modified on October 10, 2012