How does the Confidence Interval (C.I.) get used in AYP decisions?
Confidence intervals take into account the fact that the students tested in any particular year might not be representative of students in that school across the years. Confidence intervals control this sampling error or variation across years by “passing” schools or subgroups whose performance percentages are statistically indistinguishable from the AYP annual performance thresholds. A 95% C.I. can be used for meeting the state proficiency target, while a 75% C.I. can be used for meeting the Safe Harbor target.
