ROCKVILLE, MD – The Maryland State Department of Education released its preliminary data on Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) for high schools and the last results of the state’s high school assessments (HSA) for students who are not required to pass them for graduation.

Beginning with this year’s ninth graders, passing the HSA’s will be required for graduation.

On the preliminary data, 75 percent of Montgomery County Public Schools’ (MCPS) comprehensive high schools (18 of 24) made sufficient progress on state testing programs and accountability standards in 2005 to comply with the AYP requirements under the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. These preliminary AYP determinations are based on the Maryland School Assessment (MSA) in geometry and graduation rates in 2005 and are in addition to results previously released for elementary and middle schools.

These results are preliminary because MSDE has replaced the MSA reading test with a new test, English 2, which will provide AYP information and serve as the English HSA. MSDE is currently setting standards for this new assessment and anticipates having standards approved by the state Board of Education in late October. At that time, MSDE will recalculate AYP results to include the additional assessment, and the list of schools not meeting AYP will be revised and released in late fall.

More information about the HSA results is available at www.marylandpublicschools.org.

A memo summarizing the preliminary data is attached.