AYP

Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) is a school-level performance indicator prescribed by the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB). The act aimed to improve the performance of U.S. schools by increasing the standards of accountability and providing parents more flexibility in choosing which schools their children attend based on information about performance. NCLB requires states to develop state standards and assessments to be given to all students in certain grades, if those states received federal funding for schools. Arizona participates in NCLB. This statute does not mandate national achievement standards or curricula; those are set by each individual state.

NCLB requires that every public school and district in a state, as well as the state itself, be evaluated on three measures: 1) Progress toward meeting the goal of 100% proficiency on state standards by the end of the 2013-14 school year; 2) Percentage of students assessed: 3) An additional measure of school performance. NCLB mandates that for high schools, this indicator be the graduation rate. States may select an alternative indicator for elementary schools. Arizona, along with many other states, has chosen attendance rate for the other indicator for elementary schools.