Cobb County students met 95 percent of the indicators used to measure Academic Yearly Progress (AYP) in the 2010-2011 school year, reported the Georgia Department of Education Thursday. This is a five-point increase from last year’s rate of 90 percent. The increase comes despite increases in the targets and despite more schools failing to meet AYP.

Additionally, 85 percent of all Cobb students met or exceeded standards and 40 percent of students scored at the advanced level in both math and English/language arts. At the high school level, student performance was greater than 90 percent on both math and ELA assessments. Overall, 81 of 110 (74 percent) schools made AYP before summer retesting is factored into the data, the Cobb County School District stated.

Cobb County schools met 100 percent of the participation indicator. Seven of Smyrna’s 11 schools met all of the indicators used to measure AYP.

Argyle Elementary School, Brown Elementary School, King Springs Elementary School, Nickajack Elementary School, Norton Park Elementary School, and Teasley Elementary School Griffin Middle School all met AYP.

Campbell High School met the math and English/language arts proficiency indicator, but didn’t meet its targeted graduation rate and therefore did not meet AYP. Campbell’s graduation rate is characteristic of the entire district because of the jump in the graduation rate target. The 2010 graduation rate target was 80 percent, while this year’s was 85 percent. Cobb County School District’s overall graduation rate was a still strong-83.9 percent.

Only 30 percent of the state’s high schools achieved AYP in 2011 after 40.9 percent made it last year and 55.8 percent in 2009. The national graduation AYP rate increases by 5 percent every year and will be 100 percent across the country for all graduating seniors in 2014.

Belmont Hills Elementary Green Acres Elementaryall met the attendance indicator, but did not meet the math and English language arts proficiency indicator.

International Academy of Smyrna, formerly Imagine International Academy of Smyrna, met the attendance and English language arts indicators, but did not meet its math proficiency target.

Cobb County School District plans to analyze the data provided by the Georgia Department of Education including individual school AYP data and choice options for schools with “Needs Improvement” status. This information will be released in the coming days.

“I am really pleased with the gains that our students have made overall on the AYP data," Superintendent Michael Hinojosa said in a statement. “Unfortunately, the first thing most people will see is that more of our schools did not make Adequate Yearly Progress this year, but that doesn't tell the whole story. The reality is that under the No Child Left Behind Act the targets jumped significantly this year, and yet overall we met 95 percent of the indicators, which is higher than last year, 85 percent of our students met or exceeded standards, and we showed significant improvement in the performance of key student groups.

“Unless the law changes, the targets are going to continue to increase and more and more schools will not make AYP,” Hinojosa added. “That's a fact in every school district in America, but what I want to look for is continued improvement in the specific indicators and student groups, which tells me we are making progress.”

Schools and systems evaluate AYP using three indicators: participation, academic proficiency and a second indicator; for high schools it is the graduation rate and for elementary and middle schools it is the attendance rate. Schools have to meet targets from each of the three categories to meet AYP.