What determines whether a school makes “adequate yearly progress?
” Several factors affect whether or not a school makes AYP – including proficiency “cut” scores (or the minimum score a student needs to achieve on a state-mandated standardized assessment to be considered “proficient”), as well as a state’s annual performance targets (also called Annual Measurable Objectives or “AMOs”). Other factors include a state’s minimum sub-group size (this is the size of a group of students who are limited English proficient (LEP), with disabilities or a minority) and whether and how to apply a margin of statistical error to achievement results. What about middle schools? The Accountability Illusion also found that middle schools were far less likely to clear the law’s AYP bar; few of the 18 middle schools examined would make AYP in most of the 26 states examined (due to a lack of data, New Jersey and Texas were excluded from this part of the analysis). Middle schools tend to be larger and more diverse, meaning they are held accountable for the performance of m
