Eleven of the fifthteen schools in Warrick County made adequate yearly progress (AYP) in 2007 per the standards of the No Child Left Behind Act.

NLCB, which was passed into law on Jan. 8, 2002, is a federal education reform and accountability act that requires states to set clear timelines for improving student achievement. NLCB also demands that schools demonstrate AYP on state tests, such as the ISTEP+, with the goal of having 100 percent of students achieving proficiency by the 2013-2014 school year.

The four Warrick County schools that did not make AYP for this year are Loge Elementary School, Boonville High School, Castle High School and Sharon Elementary School.

Boonville and Castle have not made AYP in a few years, according to Jane Wilhelmus, director of curriculum and instruction for the Warrick County School Corporation. Because they are not Title 1 schools--schools with high percentages of students from low-income families--the sanctions put on them are minimal.

However, Title 1 schools that do not make AYP, such as Loge Elementary School, receive stiffer restrictions since Title 1 schools are provided additional federal funding to help educate at-risk families.

Since this is the second year that Loge has failed to meet AYP, it will become a choice school next year. This means that parents can decide whether or not they want their child to continue attending Loge or opt to have their child attend another elementary school. Wilhelmus said parents will be notified of the specifics regarding the choice school designation soon.

Two years ago, Chandler Elementary School and Boonville Junior High School were named choice schools for failing to meet AYP in consecutive years.

Chandler has since improved to the point where it is no longer a choice school, while Boonville Junior still has some more work to do, according to Wilhelmus.

"All of this means that we are targeting schools and trying to get some programs put into effect that will help the areas that we need to work on," said Wilhelmus. "Basically, special education and free/reduced lunch students are the two groups that we need to be targeting. A lot of those are the same students, too, but they count for both categories."

She added that the special education and free/reduced lunch areas are the most difficult for schools to achieve AYP in.

Specifically, the schools that did not make AYP will target:

• Loge Elementary--special education for English/language arts.

• Boonville High School--special education and free/reduced lunch for mathematics.

• Castle High School--special education and free/reduced lunch for English/language arts and free/reduced lunch for attendance.

• Sharon Elementary School--special education for English/language arts.

Loge made AYP in 2002 and 2004, but failed to meet the requirements in 2003, 2005 and 2006.

Boonville High School made AYP in 2002, but has failed to meet the requirements the past four years.

Castle High School made AYP in 2002 and 2003, but failed to meet the requirements the past three years.

Sharon Elementary School, however, has made AYP in 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2005, but failed to meet the requirements for this year and last year.

The Warrick County School Corporation, as a whole, made AYP. The corporation also made AYP in the Title 1 area as well.

This places WCSC in "Title 1 corporation improvement year two." If WCSC can make AYP for Title 1 corporation standing next year, then WCSC will no longer be designated as a Title 1 improvement corporation.

Perhaps the most surprising fact of the recent AYP findings is how they link with Public Law 221 (PL221).

PL221 is the Indiana Department of Education's law that tracks students as they progress from grade to grade.

This year's PL221 findings have not been released, but last year's designations marked many local schools as exemplary, including Loge and Sharon elementary schools. Castle High School was listed as commendable.

Wilhelmus said it is strange how a school can be named exemplary by the state, while being named as one that has failed to meet AYP from the federal government, but it comes down to how each law examines the information provided from standardized testing.

While PL221 tracks an individual student's progress with his or her potential graduating class, NCLB compares one set of students in a grade level with the previous set of students in the same grade level.

School oficials have said in the past that PL221 compares apples to apples, while NCLB compares apples to oranges.