HANK DEWALD /HERALD STAFF WRITER

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HALIFAX - The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction has released the preliminary results of the ABC's of testing for AYP and the results were not good for Halifax County Schools, with only two of 16 making the grade.

Halifax County Schools Superintendent Geraldine Middleton said the district's decreased AYP standings are indicative of scores across the state and nation.

"We are proud of our staff and students at Aurelian Springs and Everetts for making AYP this year," said Middleton. "They are proof that the high standards set by the federal government can be achieved by Halifax County Schools.

"We are determined to improve AYP results for the coming year even though the bar will rise again. We are implementing new initiatives that we expect to improve student performance to unprecedented levels in all our schools."

The AYP testing is part of the federal government's No Child Left Behind Act, which sets target goals in reading and math for each school based on testing results and student demographics.

Those goals increase significantly every three years, which makes it harder for the schools to make AYP when the goals rise. This year, target goals rose 12 percent for math, which means a school that met AYP last year has to have all subgroups in the school increase their math scores by 12 percent in order to meet AYP this year.

The goal of AYP is to have 100 percent of students performing at or above grade level by the year 2014. AYP looks at much more than just overall testing results for all students in a school though, it breaks those students down into subgroups within the school.

The subgroups include racially drawn groups such as white, American Indian, African-American and Hispanic. They also include students with disabilities and students from economically disadvantaged homes.

To pass AYP, students from each subgroup must meet the target goals. If one of the subgroups does not meet the standard, the entire school fails even if all others exceed the standard.

At Aurelian Springs Elementary and Everetts Elementary, all 10 subgroups performed at or above the target goal. Bakers Elementary, Brawley Middle, Dawson Elementary, Enfield Middle, Inborden Elementary, McIver Elementary and Pittman Elementary all met the target in seven of their 10 subgroups.

Eastman Middle and Northwest High School met 10 of their 13 target goals. Davie Middle and Hollister Elementary met nine of their 13 target goals, while Halifax County School of Ecology met only one of its two target goals and southeast High School met only three of its 13 goals. Scotland Neck Primary is a K-2 feeder school and is not tested for AYP.

This year's results are considered preliminary because the full results of ABC testing will not be released until November. These results are for the math portion only. The state is re-engineering its scoring formula for the reading portion of the test.