NCLB Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Under NCLB, which federal agency was primarily responsible for overseeing AYP implementation?
- Department of Labor
- Department of Education (Correct answer)
- Department of Health and Human Services
- Office of Management and Budget
Correct answer: Department of Education
The U.S. Department of Education was responsible for overseeing state compliance with NCLB's AYP requirements.
Question 2: A school that fails to make AYP for two consecutive years in the same subject must first offer students which option?
- Free tutoring services
- Transfer to a higher-performing public school (Correct answer)
- Extended school year programs
- Online course alternatives
Correct answer: Transfer to a higher-performing public school
After two consecutive years of missing AYP, schools must offer students the option to transfer to another public school in the district.
Question 3: What term describes the minimum percentage of students who must participate in state assessments for AYP purposes?
- Adequate sample threshold
- Participation rate requirement (Correct answer)
- Assessment floor standard
- Minimum tested quota
Correct answer: Participation rate requirement
NCLB required a 95% participation rate in state assessments; failure to meet this could cause a school to miss AYP regardless of scores.
Question 4: Which statistical method allowed states to use multi-year averages of student scores when calculating AYP?
- Growth percentile modeling
- Confidence interval adjustment (Correct answer)
- Safe harbor provision
- Averaging across cohorts
Correct answer: Confidence interval adjustment
States could apply confidence intervals to test score data to account for statistical variation when determining AYP status.
Question 5: Under AYP's 'safe harbor' provision, a subgroup could avoid being flagged as missing AYP if it reduced the percentage of non-proficient students by at least what fraction?
- 5%
- 10% (Correct answer)
- 15%
- 20%
Correct answer: 10%
Safe harbor allowed a subgroup to meet AYP if it reduced the percentage of students not at proficiency by at least 10% from the prior year.
Question 6: Which NCLB provision allowed states to set their own 'starting points' for AYP proficiency targets based on school performance?
- Baseline flexibility clause
- State-determined benchmarking
- Starting point methodology (Correct answer)
- Statewide proficiency baseline
Correct answer: Starting point methodology
States established a 'starting point' — typically the proficiency rate of the lowest-performing subgroup or school — as the floor from which targets escalated.
Question 7: If a single subgroup within a school fails to make AYP, what happens to the school's overall AYP status?
- The school receives a warning but retains AYP status
- The school is placed on a watch list only
- The school as a whole is considered to have not made AYP (Correct answer)
- Only the subgroup is penalized, not the school
Correct answer: The school as a whole is considered to have not made AYP
Under NCLB, a school's overall AYP status is determined by whether every subgroup meets targets; one failing subgroup causes the entire school to miss AYP.
NCLB Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) 2
Under NCLB, which federal agency was primarily responsible for overseeing AYP implementation?