By Sarah Nagem
snagem@salisburypost.com
Kannapolis can add another school to its list of those that met preliminary No Child Left Behind standards during the 2007-2008 school year.
The state incorrectly released information earlier this week that indicated Woodrow Wilson Elementary did not make “adequate yearly progress,” the standard required by the federal accountability program.
The school actually met all 12 of its target goals this past school year, school system officials said Thursday.
This brings the number of Kannapolis City Schools that met federal standards to four ń 50 percent of the schools in the system.
In comparison, less than 30 percent of Rowan-Salisbury schools met the requirements, which are based on math scores in third through eighth grades and math and reading scores in high schools.
A 50 percent passing rate for Kannapolis City Schools ranks the system fourth in its 15-district testing region, Ellen Boyd, spokeswoman for the Kannapolis system, said. Only the Lincoln, Cleveland and Union school districts tested better than Kannapolis.
But Boyd said the school system still has work to do.
“Obviously, we want to do better,” she said. “We want all our schools to make Adequate Yearly Progress.”
Shady Brook Elementary, Kannapolis Intermediate, Kannapolis Middle and A.L. Brown High School failed to meet the federal requirements.
In addition to Woodrow Wilson Elementary, three other elementary schools met the standards: Jackson Park, Fred L. Wilson and Forest Park.
If Woodrow Wilson hadn’t met the requirements this past school year, the school would have been placed on a federal watchlist. The school met the standards during the 2006-2007 school year.
As part of federal sanctions in the upcoming school year, Jackson Park Elementary will offer outside tutoring to students, and parents will have the choice of transferring their children to another school.
Kannapolis Intermediate also will offer outside tutoring.
In its first year of school improvement, Shady Brook Elementary will offer parents a choice of sending their children elsewhere.
“It is getting more and more difficult to make Adequate Yearly Progress,” Boyd said, “because they keep raising the bar.”