District Notification to Parents
by Larry Flanagan
Lincoln County R-2 School District
Larry Flanagan
Superintendent of Schools
P.O. Box 106
573-898-5554
Elsberry, Missouri 63343
August 2, 2011
Dear Parent or Guardian:
Under the federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) of 2001, each state is required to assess all school districts to determine if each district has made adequate yearly progress (AYP) toward meeting the academic testing standards and additional measures set by the state. AYP decisions are based on the results of state testing in communication arts and math and the district’s attendance rate and graduation rate. If the district has not made AYP for two consecutive years in any one of the four areas, it is considered “in need of improvement.”
Based on the results of the 2010-2011 academic testing in communication arts and math and the district’s attendance rate and graduation rate, the Elsberry R-II School District did not make adequate yearly progress for the following reasons:
School must demonstrate that these achievement levels are being met for each of the following subgroups within each district: Caucasian students, Hispanic students, African American students, students with disabilities, students receiving free/reduced lunches, students with limited English proficiency and other subgroups. If one group of students in a school fails to meet the standards, that means the entire school fails. Supplemental services will be available for those students in the subgroups that did not make AYP in the area of Mathematics in the elementary.
AYP decisions are based on the results of state MAP testing in the following areas: Communication Arts and Math. NCLB states that each school district, school and subgroup within each school must have 100% of their students’ proficient by 2014. Therefore, adequacy target goals are set each year for each subgroup increasing annually until the 100% goal is achieved. This year’s goals were 75.5% in Communication Arts and 72.5% in Math.
Because this is the fourth year of this designation, the district is considered to be in Level 3 continuing of the District Improvement, Corrective Action. We will evaluate and update the plan for improvement that has been developed. One important component of this plan is parent involvement in the implementation of the plan. The Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education will review the district’s progress toward meeting the goals and objectives of the plan and may impose additional sanctions.
You can also help by increasing your understanding of the assessment, understanding the importance of good attendance and graduating from school, visiting schools and becoming a volunteer, and engaging in reading and math strategies at home.
Information about No Child Left Behind and what parents can do to improve student achievement can be found at: <http://www.ed.gov/parents/landing.jhtm1>.
Sincerely,
Larry Flanagan
Superintendent
Lincoln County R-2 School District
