AYP and Diversity: How Do Schools Measure Up?

Overview

Objectives/Goals Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) takes an essential role in today#s society. But, ever since 2001 when the No Child Left Behind Act was passed, every school is expected to grow 1 point each year; both as a whole and in each numerically significant subgroup. This means that a school that has 25 subgroups and grows 1 point in 24 subgroups would get a #no# for AYP. Based on my research, I hypothesize that the more subgroups a school has the more difficult it is for them to be making AYP. Methods/Materials To test my question, I did two things; a data analysis based on 2005 AYP scores and a random number generator. I did this to make sure that my results were the same in both situations. As testing began to develop, I was appalled to see that more than half of the schools were not making AYP. Also, when using my random number test, I saw that it was impossible to make AYP when a school had 37 subgroups. Results After testing was complete, I proved my hypothesis to be correct and saw that schools with greater amounts of subgroups were not making AYP. 56% of California middle schools are not making AYP, while 44% are. Also, the random number test showed that of the 100 schools (trials), 81% of the schools with 37 subgroups were making it in 35 of the subgroups. This concludes my experiment, showing the bias in today#s school system.

Competition history

• CSEF 2006 Social Sciences (Junior Division Only) · Entry J1711

Resources

• CSEF project summary ↗

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