By Staff
Area schools celebrate AYP scores
Escambia County and Brewton City schools barely have time to celebrate their academic progress before diving into a new school year.
Both school systems achieved &#8220adequate yearly progress,” the state's term for meeting annual academic and attendance goals. In Brewton and East Brewton, all of the individual schools also achieved AYP, except for W.S. Neal High School, which missed one goal.
Superintendents for both school systems said this week they do not plan to rest on their achievements. Both Billy Hines and Lynn Smith said teachers and administrators will be looking at the test scores on which AYP is based to determine how the schools can improve next year.
The state standards schools must meet are set up because of the federal No Child Left Behind law, a controversial piece of legislation designed to do just that - leave no child, no matter his or her economic background or race or ethnicity, behind.
While the law is flawed in many ways, the intent is not. And as our local schools continue to improve, they will likely find it harder and harder to get better every year.
That's why we're glad to see that school officials are not resting on their laurels. Each school still has work to do to help all students of all backgrounds achieve their highest potential. W.S. Neal High School in particular must work to improve its graduation rate, a goal that is calculated based on the school's dropout rate and students' performance on the Alabama graduation exam.
Overall, though, parents sending students to East Brewton and Brewton schools this year can be reassured that their students will be getting the best education possible. We salute the teachers whose hard work, patience and perseverance helps every student achieve his or her potential.