October 5 , 2006
Guilford County High Schools Experience Significant Increase in ABC Results -- The Early College at Guilford Achieves Honor School of Excellence
- The 2005-06 ABC results include high schools only
- Based on these results, 91 percent of GCS high schools met expected/high growth in 2006, compared with only 57 percent of high schools in North Carolina meeting those standards
- Four of GCS high schools met high growth standards, with only 66 high schools in North Carolina meeting those standards
- The Early College at Guilford is one of three schools statewide to be an Honor School of Excellence in 2005-06
- Sixteen GCS high schools met expected growth
- Of GCS’ middle/early college high schools, five met expected growth with two of those meeting high growth
- Both Smith and Dudley met expected growth standards
Today, the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction released its 2006 High School “ABC” results. We are pleased to announce that 91 percent of our high schools met expected/high growth during the 2005-06 school year. This is a significant increase from 2004-05 when 76 percent of our high schools fit into these categories using the old model of measurement.
District Results
There were 66 high schools statewide that met high growth and four of those schools are Guilford County Schools (GCS) including; Greensboro Middle College, GTCC Middle College, High Point Central and Page. There were 209 high schools statewide that met expected growth and GCS had 16 of our 22 high schools in that category. There were only three high schools in the state (two public and one charter) that made Honor Schools of Excellence using the new ABCs model in 2006. One of those schools can be found right here in GCS. The Early College at Guilford received the prestigious title of being an Honor School of Excellence and topped the list with a 97.7 Performance Composite score.
During the 2005-06 school year, schools continued to be recognized for student achievement growth and for the proficiency rate within schools. The school designation categories remain the same, except the 25 Most Improved K-8 Schools and 10 Most Improved High Schools recognition categories were eliminated.
New Growth Model
In considering the new ABCs of 2006 against the original 1996 ABCs model, it is useful to view the new ABCs as a fresh start in terms of measuring school performance. While the model continues to focus on the annual growth of students and on the reporting of each school’s performance composite, the new ABCs formulas are different enough that comparisons between the 2006 performance of schools and prior years are problematic. In fact, it may be more difficult to meet today’s criteria verses the model developed in 1996.
The “ABC” program is the state’s accountability system and is based on student growth. Growth is an indication of the rate at which the students in the school learned over the past year. The standard is equivalent to a year’s worth of growth for a year of instruction. It is different from the federal “AYP” program that is based on whether the students in the school, as a whole and in each identified group, met the performance standards set by each state following federal guidelines; the long-term goal is 100 percent proficiency by 2013-14.
Because of differences in program criteria, some of our schools that made AYP did not make the state’s ABC status. And some of our schools that did not make AYP, met their ABC standards. The state is working with the federal government to try to merge the two accountability systems.
Click here to view the GCS’ ABC results.
Striving, Achieving, Excelling
While we are working to further improve all of our schools, the staffs of our high schools are to be commended for their hard work and effort. As of right now, we expect to receive the middle/elementary ABC results in early November.
Please call me at 370-8992, should you have questions.
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