All data reported in this section are based on student performance on the North Carolina ABCs End-of-Grade and End-of-Course tests. Students in grades 3-8 must take annual End-of-Grade tests in reading and mathematics. Students enrolled in any of the following courses must take End-of-Course tests: English I; Algebra I and II; Geometry; Biology; Civics and Economics; and US History.

There are four levels of performance on the state's End-of-Grade and End-of-Course tests ranging from Levels I-IV. A general description of each achievement level follows. More detailed definitions may be found on the Department of Public Instruction's ABCs Web site.

• Level I: Students performing at this level do not have sufficient mastery of knowledge and skills in this grade level or subject area to be successful at the next grade level or at a more advanced level in this subject area.
  
  
• Level II: Students performing at this level demonstrate inconsistent mastery of knowledge and skills in this grade level or subject area and are minimally prepared to be successful at the next grade level or at a more advanced level in this subject area.
  
  
• Level III: Students performing at this level consistently demonstrate mastery of this subject matter and skills and are well prepared for the next grade level (EOG) or for a more advanced level in this subject area (EOC).
  
  
• Level IV: Students performing at this level consistently perform in a superior manner clearly beyond that required to be proficient in this grade level or subject matter and are very well prepared for the next grade level or for a more advanced level in the subject area.

Students are considered to be at or above grade level if they receive a score of Level III or IV on the state's tests.

End-of-Grade percentages are based on the number of a school's reading and mathematics tests scored at Level III or above in the 2006-07 school year. End-of-Course percentages are based on the number of a school's End-of-Course tests scored at Level III or above in the 2006-07 school year. Scores for non-high school students enrolled in courses subject to ABCs testing requirements are reported.

Results for students with disabilities taking alternate assessments, including the NCCLAS, NCEXTEND1 or NCEXTEND2 are included in the reported percentages.

Student Performance Trend Data graphs display the percentage of students at or above Level III on the End-of-Grade reading tests in the 2004-05, 2005-06, and 2006-07 school years. A multi-year trend for math is only available beginning in 2005-06 because of new tests based on the revised Standard Course of Study.

Additional information is provided on the Web-based version of the North Carolina School Report Card. Tables display the number and percentage of students at each of the four achievement levels on End-of-Grade reading tests. This information also is displayed for students of each racial/ethnic category, gender, economic status, disability status, migrant status, and for English language learners. Detailed achievement level results for each grade level and course tested are available online in the Department of Public Instruction's Reports of Supplemental Disaggregated State, School System (LEA) and School Performance Data for 2006-07. Data on the number of students taking the ABCs End-of-Grade reading and mathematics tests also are provided on the Web-based report card.

The North Carolina ABCs program and federal No Child Left Behind legislation require schools to test at least 95 percent of their students. Students with disabilities taking alternate assessments, including the NCCLAS, NCEXTEND1 or NCEXTEND2, are credited as having been tested. Where the number of students (five or fewer) is too small to ensure that student test results remain anonymous, a N/A (not available) will appear.

In any group where the percentage of students at a grade level is greater than 95% or less than 5%, the actual values may not be displayed because of federal privacy regulations. In these cases the results will be shown as >95% or <5% for the group.

Source: NCDPI, Accountability Services Division, Reporting Section, "Reports of Disaggregated State, School System (LEA), & School Performance Data for 2006-07."

Promotion Rate
North Carolina public school students are required to meet statewide student accountability standards for promotion in grades 3, 5, and 8. The standards, also called gateways, require that students score at or above grade level, or Level III, on the North Carolina End-of-Grade tests in reading and mathematics before being promoted to the next grade. Students who do not meet the standards after the first test administration are given two opportunities for retesting.

If the child has not reached Level III after the second or third testing, teachers or parents may request a formal review to determine if the child should be promoted to the next grade. The teacher will submit documentation of the student's work to a review committee (comprised of teachers and principals from other schools and central office staff), which will review the request and make a recommendation to the student's principal about promotion. The principal has the final say in determining whether a child is working at grade level and should be promoted.

The percentage of tested students in grades 3, 5 and 8 that meet the promotion standards in reading and mathematics is provided. Students may be considered to have “met grade level standards” by scoring at or above Level III on the End-of-Grade tests in reading and mathematics. Percentages are gathered after the third and final test administration.

Source: NCDPI, Accountability Services Division, Reporting Section.

High Student Performance Data Reported by Student Groups
All data reported in this section are based on student performance on the North Carolina ABCs End-of-Grade and End-of-Course tests. For each student group, the percentage of scores at Level III or above is reported. Percentages for schools with students in grades 3-8 are based on the number of students scoring at or above Level III in both reading and mathematics on the ABCs End-of-Grade tests. Scores of students who did not take both the ABCs reading and mathematics tests are omitted from the reported percentages. Percentages for schools with students taking End-of-Course exams are based on the total number of End-of-Course tests scored at or above Level III. End-of-Course percentages are weighted by the number of test takers.

Data are reported for the following six (6) student groups:

• Gender: Male and Female
  
  
• Racial/ethnic: White, Black, Hispanic, American Indian, Asian/Pacific Islander, and Multi-racial
  
  
• Economically Disadvantaged (E.D. or N.E.D.): Students who qualify for free and reduced price school meals are included in the group, "Economically Disadvantaged." All students who do not qualify for free or reduced price meals are defined as "Not economically Disadvantaged." Free and reduced lunch data are not available for high school students. No End-of-Course performance data are reported for E.D. or N.E.D. students.
  
  
• Limited English Proficient (L.E.P.): Students whose first language is not English and who need language assistance to participate fully in the regular curriculum. Students who have exited LEP identification during the last two years are included in AYP calculations for the LEP group only if that group already met the minimum number of 40 students required for a group.
  
  
• Migrant Students: To be considered a "Migrant Student," a child must engage in or have parents or guardians who engage in migrant agricultural work. The child also must have moved within the preceding 36 months to accommodate temporary or seasonal agricultural work.
  
  
• Students with Disabilities: "Students with Disabilities" includes all children who, because of permanent or temporary mental, physical or emotional handicaps, are in need of special education services. Section 504 students are included.

Where no scores are reported or the number of students is too small (five or fewer) to ensure that student test results remain anonymous, a N/A (not available) is displayed. In any group where the percentage of students at a grade level is greater than 95% or less than 5%, the actual values may not be displayed because of federal privacy regulations. In these cases the results will be shown as >95% or <5% for the group.

Source: NCDPI, Accountability Services Division, Reporting Section, "Reports of Disaggregated State, School System (LEA), & School Performance Data for 2005-06."

Computer Skills Test
All data reported in this section are based on the performance of grade 8 students who have passed all portions of the NC Tests of Computer Skills by the end of their grade 8 year. The NC Tests of Computer Skills, administered for the first time when students are in grade 8, yield a pass or fail status; students’ scores are not reported as achievement levels.

Edition Three of NC Tests of Computer Skills consists of an online assessment and an alternate assessment. Students who do not pass the NC Test of Computer skills in grade 8 are given multiple opportunities to re-take the test each year until graduation. Only figures for the grade 8 passing rates are provided for this indicator.

Source: NCDPI, Accountability Services Division, Test Development and Reporting Section.

SAT
The test lasts 3 hours and 45 minutes and consists of multiple-choice and sentence completion questions along with the new student-written essay. The test's critical reading section, formerly known as the verbal section, examines sentence completion and passage-based reading. The test's math section examines a student's ability to solve problems in arithmetic, algebra, and geometry, and to answer statistical, probability, and data analysis questions. The writing section consists of two subsections: short essay and multiple-choice. The short essay section measures a student’s ability to effectively communicate a viewpoint and define and support a position. The multiple-choice writing questions examine a student’s ability to improve sentences and paragraphs and identify errors. Each section of the SAT is scored on a scale of 200 - 800, and the writing section contains two subscores.

Average total SAT scores and participation rates are provided. Participation rates represent the percentage of high school graduates in the class of 2006 who took the SAT exam. Please note that scores from the new writing portion of the SAT are not included in these percentages.

Source: NCDPI, Accountability Services Division, Reporting Section, The North Carolina SAT Report, Fall 2006.

AYP Attendance Rate
The measurement used for NCLB is Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP). AYP “sets the bar” for school performance by groups of students. In order to make AYP, schools and districts need to meet every single performance target set for it. Targets are set for student performance on the state standardized tests in reading and mathematics as well as for what is termed “Other Academic Indicators.”

Attendance in elementary and middle schools and the Four-Year Cohort Graduation Rate in high schools are Other Academic Indicators in North Carolina. Progress is considered to be at least a .1 percentage point increase up to the 90% threshold for attendance or 80% for graduation rate. Any fluctuations above the threshold for the attendance or the Four-Year Cohort Graduation Rate will meet the requirement for progress. For schools that have both elementary/middle grades and high school grades, the Other Academic Indicator is the Four-Year Cohort Graduation Rate if the school graduates seniors and attendance rate if the school does not. (There are special conditions that may apply when either of the grade spans has fewer than 40 students.)

More detailed information is available on the Department of Public Instruction’s No Child Left Behind Web site.

AYP Graduation Rate
The graduation rate reported here complies with the No Child Left Behind federal education law. For more information about AYP, please refer to the Department of Public Instruction’s No Child Left Behind Web site at http://www.ncpublicschools.org/nclb/.

Since July 2005, all 50 states have signed the National Governors Association’s Graduation Counts Compact on State High School Graduation Data. In the compact, governors agreed to take steps to implement a standard, four-year adjusted cohort graduation rate. States agree to calculate the graduation rate by dividing the number of on-time graduates in a given year by the number of first-time entering ninth graders four years earlier. Graduates are defined as those receiving a high school diploma. The denominator can be adjusted for transfers in and out of the system, and data systems track individual students with a longitudinal student unit record data system.

For more information visit National Governors Association Compact:
http://www.nga.org/Files/pdf/0602GRADGUIDANCE.PDF

Source: NCDPI, Accountability Services Division, Reporting Section, Demographics Data Collection, 2006.

School Performance on the ABCs
Each year, schools in North Carolina may receive several designations based on their performance on the state's ABCs tests. These designations are awarded on the basis of the percentage of students performing at grade level and on whether the school attained the ABCs growth standards. The designations are defined as follows:

• Honor School of Excellence: At least 90 percent of their students' scores are at or above achievement Level III and the school makes or exceeds its expected growth goal. Additionally, the school has achieved adequate yearly progress (AYP).
  
  
• School of Excellence: At least 90 percent of their students' scores are at or above achievement Level III and the school makes or exceeds its expected growth goal.
  
  
• School of Distinction: 80-89 percent of students' scores are at or above achievement Level III and school makes or exceeds its expected growth goal.
  
  
• School of Progress: 60-79 percent of students' scores are at or above achievement Level III and school makes or exceeds its expected growth goal.
  
  
• School Receiving No Recognition: School fails to reach its expected growth goals but has at least 60 percent of its students performing at or above achievement Level III.
  
  
• Priority School: School has less than 60 percent of its students' scores at or above achievement Level III and is not identified as a Low-Performing School.
  
  
• Low-Performing School: School fails to reach its expected growth goal and has significantly less than 50 percent of its students performing at or above achievement Level III.
  
  
• High Growth: A K-8 school achieving approximately 10 percent above its expected growth goal or a 9-12 school achieving approximately 3 percent above its expected growth goal in selected courses.
  
  
• Expected Growth: School made its expected growth goal.
  
  

K-2 feeder schools are schools with no students in the tested grades. The ABCs designations for these schools reflect the designation of their receiving schools’ (third grade and above) that enroll the greatest percentage of the K-2 feeder students.

Special Schools, including Vocational and Career Centers, Special Education Schools, and Hospital Schools, are eligible for participation in the ABCs and may receive prorated incentive awards based on the status (high or expected growth) attained by the schools they serve. Special Schools cannot be recognized as a Most Improved School, Honor School of Excellence, School of Excellence, School of Distinction, School of Progress, Priority School, or be identified as a low-performing school.

Each report card provides the designations given to each school and the percentage of schools with the same grade span in the district and state receiving each designation.

Source: NCDPI, Accountability Services Division, Reporting Section, Reports of Disaggregated State, School System (LEA), & School Performance Data for 2006-07.

Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP)
For a school to make Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP), each student group and the school must make progress toward achieving state performance standards in both reading and mathematics. The groups are:

• the School as a Whole;
• White;
• Black;
• Hispanic;
• Native American;
• Asian;
• Multiracial;
• Economically Disadvantaged Students;
• Limited English Proficient Students; and
• Students With Disabilities.

In North Carolina, economically disadvantaged students are defined as those eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. Most schools will not have all groups represented at their school. A student can be in as few as one group (School as a Whole) if he/she is part of a group represented by less than 40 students across the tested grades in a school, or a student could be in as many as five groups.

LEAs are held to the same participation and Other Academic Indicators target goals for students in reading/language arts and mathematics that are established for schools. AYP is determined for a school district by compiling the data for each student group and for the students as a whole in the district.

For elementary and middle schools (grades 3-8) to make AYP, each student group in the tested grades must meet the following target goals:

• 95 percent participation rate in end-of-grade reading or alternate assessments;
• 95 percent participation rate in end-of-grade mathematics or alternate assessments;
• proficiency or above in end-of-grade reading or alternate assessments; and
• proficiency or above in end-of-grade mathematics or alternate assessments.
• In addition, the School as a Whole must show progress on the Other Academic Indicator, which is attendance for schools in grades 3 to 8.

For high schools (grades 9-12) to make AYP, each student group must meet the following target goals:

• 95 percent participation rate on the English I and Grade 10 writing or alternate assessments;
• 95 percent participation rate on the Algebra I or alternate assessments;
• proficiency or above on the English I and Grade 10 writing or alternate assessments; and
• proficiency or above on the Algebra I or alternate assessments.
• In addition, the School as a Whole must show progress on the Other Academic Indicator, which is the cohort graduation rate if the school graduates seniors and the attendance rate if it doesn’t.

Each student group at a school, district or the state level must meet or exceed the proficiency target goals outlined in the chart below on the designated assessments in order for the school, district or state to make AYP. For instance, in 2006-07, at least 65.8 percent of economically disadvantaged students at an elementary school must score at Level III or IV on the end-of-grade mathematics assessment or its alternate in order to make AYP. Through the use of safe harbor, the confidence interval or the AYP growth standard, a school still might be able to make AYP even if it misses its proficiency target goals.

Note: Calculations carry full precision until final rounding.

*Subject to change due to new test edition to be administered in 2007-08.

Other Academic Indicator (OAI) – Attendance & Four-year Cohort Graduation Rate
If a school contains a combination of elementary, middle and high school grade ranges, all available targets will be used for determining AYP status. Progress on the OAI is defined as at least a 0.1 percentage point increase from one year to the next, up to a threshold of 90%. Any fluctuation above 90% will meet the requirement for progress.

For elementary and middle schools, progress is defined as a .1 percentage point increase or more or any fluctuation at or above the 90 percent threshold. For high schools, progress is defined as a .1 percentage point increase or more or any fluctuation at or above the 80 percent threshold, changed by the State Board of Education in 2006-07. For schools that have both elementary/middle grades and high school grades, the Other Academic Indicator is the cohort graduation rate if the school has 12th grade and graduates seniors, and attendance rate if the school does not. (There are special conditions that may apply when either of the grade spans has fewer than 40 students.)

Districts are held accountable for meeting all targets measured in the district, including the attendance rate and cohort graduation rate. It is possible for a district to enter district improvement under NCLB even if all schools make AYP. A group must have at least 40 students, with the exception of the School as a Whole; where up to as few as 5 students’ data will be calculated to determine the OAI and 3 students’ data to determine if proficiency targets have been met. For proficiency and attendance targets, only students in membership a full academic year (FAY) are calculated at the school level. FAY is defined as 140 days in membership as of the first day of spring testing.

Source: NCDPI, Accountability Services Division, Reporting Section, "Reports of Disaggregated State, School System (LEA), & School Performance Data for 2006-07."

School Improvement Status
A Title I school that does not make AYP in the same subject for two consecutive years is designated as a Title I School Improvement school. The more years a school does not meet its AYP targets in the same subject, the more severe sanctions become. More detailed information is available on the Department of Public Instruction’s No Child Left Behind Web site at http://www.ncpublicschools.org/nclb/.

Source: NCDPI, Accountability Services Division, Reporting Section, Reports of Disaggregated State, School System (LEA), & School Performance Data for 2006-07.