An "accountable" education system involves several critical steps:

• States with input of all stakeholders create their own standards for what a child should know and learn for all grades. New Jersey has set standards in math and Language Arts Literacy. Standards have also been developed for science by the 2005-06 school year; they will be added to the accountability system in 2007.
• With standards in place, states must assess every student's progress toward those standards by using tests that are aligned with the standards. Beginning in the 2002-03 school year, schools administered tests in each of three grade spans: grades 3-5, grades 6-9, and grades 10-12 in all schools. Beginning in the 2005-06 school year, tests must be administered every year in grades 3 through 8 in math and reading. Beginning in the 2007-08 school year, science achievement must also be tested and included in the state accountability system.
• Each state, school district, and school will be expected to make adequate yearly progress toward the goal of 100% proficiency by 2014. This progress will be measured for all students by desegregated test results for students who are economically disadvantaged, from racial or ethnic minority groups, have disabilities, or have limited English proficiency, as well as for the total school population.
• School and district performance will be publicly reported in district and state report cards. Individual school results will be on the district report cards.
• If the district or school continually fails to make adequate progress toward the standards, then they will be held accountable.

http://www.nj.gov/njded/grants/nclb/

For the original document form USDE click below:

http://www.nclb.gov/next/overview/index.html

What is Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP)?
AYP refers to the growth needed in the proportion of students who achieve state benchmarks of academic proficiency. Schools that fail to make AYP for two years in a row are considered in need of improvement; Those that receive Title I funds to improve learning for disadvantage students face a range of consequences.

The criteria on which state accountability systems will be judged include:

• A single statewide accountability system that applies to all public schools and school districts, with assessments and accountability applied in the same manner for all schools and all students groups.
• All public school students are included in the state accountability system.
• State definitions of AYP mirror state expectations for continuous and substantial growth in student achievement. All students are to reach proficiency in reading and math no later than 2013-2014. The 2001-02 assessment data is used as a baseline for the 12-year timeline.
• States must make annual decisions about the progress of all public schools and districts.
• All public schools and districts will be held accountable for the achievement of individual subgroups, including students in major racial/ethnic groups, economically disadvantaged students, limited English proficient students and students with disabilities. Accountability decisions must be based on the achievement of each subgroup, as well as on overall achievement.
• A state's definition of AYP is based primarily on the state's academic assessments. The definition of AYP also includes graduation rates for high schools and an additional indicator for middle and elementary schools, that measure is attendance rate.
• AYP is based on separate reading/language arts and math achievement objectives.
• A state's accountability system must be statistically valid and reliable.
• For a school to make AYP, each subgroup and the school overall must make AYP, and the school must test at least 95 percent of students, including 95 percent of each subgroup. Schools must report all results by subgroup, but if the number of students in a group won't produce statistically reliable results, the state need not identify the school as not making AYP based on the subgroup results. States determine the minimum size for a group. In New Jersey that number is 20.

http://www.nj.gov/njded/grants/nclb/

For the original document form USDE click below:

http://www.nclb.gov/media/news/072402.html