On Friday, Nov. 14, St. Mary’s County Public School officials announced that for the first time since the inception of the federal No Child Left Behind Act, every SMCPS elementary, middle, and high school achieved adequate yearly progress. AYP sets the minimum level of proficiency that the schools must achieve each year on annual tests and related academic indicators.

The Maryland State Department of Education released the AYP status for high schools for the 2007-2008 school year. Elementary and middle school results were released this summer.  

“I am absolutely ecstatic with the fact that all of our schools made AYP,” said Dr. Michael J. Martirano, superintendent of schools. “This is a major accomplishment for our school system and community.  MSDE has reported that we are one of very few school systems in the state of Maryland who can make the claim that all of our schools made AYP,” stated Dr. Martirano. “This incredible accomplishment is testament to the hard work and dedication of all school system employees and our students. These results confirm that we are a very high performing school system.”

“The high academic standards set by the school system, the curriculum writing by our supervisors, the focused instruction by our teachers, the outstanding leadership by our administrators, the implementation of our data warehouse system, and the ongoing training of our staff are just a few of the many initiatives that are contributing to these excellent results,” said Linda Dudderar, chief academic officer. “We have made tremendous gains over the past few years as a result of our commitment to excellence and our laser like focus on student achievement.”

Under the federal NCLB initiative, in order to attain AYP, schools must show progress in both reading and mathematics across all grade levels and in all race/ethnicity and special-services categories—special education, limited English proficient, and economically disadvantaged students. If a school is unable to make progress in all areas, including attendance, for two consecutive years, it is identified for School Improvement and faces a variety of consequences designed to bring about improvements.

 Individual high school scores, system-level AYP, and state-level AYP data will be made available in the coming weeks on the MSDE report card web site at www.MdReportCard.org.