How do you make ayp

As discussed in " Accountability Tests Are Blunt Instruments ," there are many reasons, unrelated to teaching and learning, why a school's test scores might not accurately reflect the school's quality. To help assure that these inaccuracies don't lead schools to be misidentified, it's critical that states make use of such statistical safeguards as confidence intervals and multi-year averaging; not all states currently do so.

These safeguards are critical to any accountability system, not just NCLB's, and are even more important when accountability is based on achievement growth.

The need for statistical safeguards is especially important when dealing with small groups, such as the subgroups identified by NCLB. Most states try to address this by establishing a minimum subgroup size—meaning that if a subgroup is too small, its progress won't count for AYP determination. Unfortunately, not only is this a rather crude statistical safeguard, but it also undermines NCLB's promise to "leave no child behind" by allowing states to avoid counting the test scores of small groups of disadvantaged children.

Confidence intervals do a better job of ensuring statistical reliability by taking into account the statistical "margin of error" in the AYP calculation in the same way that public opinion polls include a margin of error. Because the margin of error widens as subgroups get smaller, large minimum subgroup sizes are not needed—and more subgroups can count for AYP determinations.

Several states are now "gaming" AYP; by establishing excessively large minimum subgroup sizes, especially for the special education subgroup, states seem to be focused primarily on reducing the number of subgroups counted in AYP determinations rather than on fairness and accuracy. Complement the evidence provided by test scores with on-the-ground observations. In Britain, where greater school accountability has also been introduced, an inspection system, in which trained inspectors observe schools, is used to complement the data produced by test scores.

An aide to Britain's prime minister explains one of the reasons why. Inspection enables a much more refined approach to dealing with school failure. Intervention in schools that are seriously underperforming—enabled by the development of accountability—has been hugely beneficial, but where the system depends purely on test results to determine school failure or success, it risks being far too crude.

Our interventions in failing schools are driven by the inspection system. Where a team of inspectors judges a school to be failing "in need of special measures," as the legal euphemism puts it , a second team of inspectors follows up shortly afterwards to corroborate the judgment. This process enables real analysis—not just of whether performance is poor, but also why. In addition, it enables the system to identify and tackle failure even where it is masked by temporarily reasonable test results.

Once a school is in special measures, the inspectors return three times a year. Often within a year or 18 months, they are able to give a school a clean bill of health. Our evidence suggests that in these circumstances, the expertise of the inspectors is hugely appreciated.

For the principal and staff, these visits are simultaneously both challenging and beneficial. They provide an expert commentary to the school on what is happening.

Objectives Students will learn about changes that occurred in the New World and Old World as a result of early exploration. Older students only. Besides strange people and animals, they were exposed to many foods that were unknown in the Old World. In this lesson, you might post an outline map of the continents on a bulletin board.

On the bulletin board, draw an arrow from the New World the Americas to the Old World Europe, Asia, Africa and post around it drawings or images from magazines or clip art of products discovered in the New World and taken back to the Old World. You might draw a second arrow on the board -- from the Old World to the New World -- and post appropriate drawings or images around it. Adapt the Lesson for Younger Students Younger students will not have the ability to research foods that originated in the New and Old World.

You might adapt the lesson by sharing some of the food items in the Food Lists section below. Have students collect or draw pictures of those items for the bulletin board display.

Students might find many of those and add them to the bulletin board display. Notice that some items appear on both lists -- beans, for example. There are many varieties of beans, some with New World origins and others with their origins in the Old World. In our research, we found sources that indicate onions originated in the New and sources that indicate onions originated in the Old World.

Students might create a special question mark symbol to post next to any item for which contradictory sources can be found Note: The Food Timeline is a resource that documents many Old World products. This resource sets up a number of contradictions. For example: Many sources note that tomatoes originated in the New World; The Food Timeline indicates that tomatoes were introduced to the New World in The Food Timeline indicates that strawberries and raspberries were available in the 1st century in Europe; other sources identify them as New World commodities.

Foods That Originated in the Old World: apples, bananas, beans some varieties , beets, broccoli, carrots, cattle beef , cauliflower, celery, cheese, cherries, chickens, chickpeas, cinnamon, coffee, cows, cucumbers, eggplant, garlic, ginger, grapes, honey honey bees , lemons, lettuce, limes, mangos, oats, okra, olives, onions, oranges, pasta, peaches, pears, peas, pigs, radishes, rice, sheep, spinach, tea, watermelon, wheat, yams. Extension Activities Home-school connection.

Have students and their parents search their food cupboards at home; ask each student to bring in two food items whose origin can be traced to a specific place foreign if possible, domestic if not. Labels from those products will be sufficient, especially if the products are in breakable containers. Media literacy. Because students will research many sources, have them list the sources for the information they find about each food item.

Have them place an asterisk or checkmark next to the food item each time they find that item in a different source. If students find a food in multiple sources, they might consider it "verified"; those foods they find in only one source might require additional research to verify.

Assessment Invite students to agree or disagree with the following statement:The early explorers were surprised by many of the foods they saw in the New World. Have students write a paragraph in support of their opinion. Click here to return to this week's World of Learning lesson plan page. Where Did Foods Originate? Foods of the New World and Old World. Check out our helpful suggestions to find just the right one!

The following statements will help you tailor your comments to specific children and highlight their areas for improvement. Related: Report Card Comments for positive comments! Needs Improvement- all topics is a hard worker, but has difficulty staying on task.

Additional work on these topics would be incredibly helpful. Practicing at home would be very beneficial. Slowing down and taking more time would help with this. We are working on learning when it is a good time to share and when it is a good time to listen. Talking through the classroom routine at home would be helpful. Practicing these at home would be very helpful. For more information on the Public School Notebook, an independent newspaper covering public education in Philadelphia and supporting community efforts for educational quality and equity, please visit www.

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