3 Highlands schools make federal grade

Three Highlands County Schools - Avon, Park and Lake Country elementary schools - made Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) according to federal school accountability guidelines.

Along with achieving AYP, Park Elementary maintained its A grade.

Park Elementary Principal Brenda Longshore said teachers analyzed data to target instruction for each subgroup of students.

The students worked hard and parents and staff provided great support, she said.

Last year the school came close to meeting all the AYP requirements, but missed in one category - Hispanics did not make the necessary progress in reading.

"We really concentrated in that area while trying to maintain the other areas," Longshore said.

Avon and Lake Country elementary schools also earned AYP last year along with Cracker Trail Elementary School.

Required as a part of the federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act, AYP requirements target the performance and participation of various student subgroups on statewide assessments based on race or ethnicity, socioeconomic status, disability and English proficiency.

The AYP designation is a factor in the School Choice provision of No Child Left Behind, which allows parents to transfer their children from schools in need of improvement to schools that made AYP.

The Florida Department of Education reports that even though these proficiency requirements were raised significantly this year, Florida was able to nearly maintain the percentage of schools (23 percent or 785 schools) making AYP as compared to last year (24 percent or 792 schools).