Horry County schools made progress this year toward meeting goals set by the federal No Child Left Behind law.
More Horry County schools met all of their goals this year than last year.
It's tough for a school district to reach all of their goals for adequate yearly progress, or AYP.
Horry County got close, hitting 94 percent of its goals. Still, school officials say AYP is only one way to measure a school's progress and not necessarily the most important one.
Under No Child Left Behind, each school's goals for progress are different, because each school's population of low income or struggling students is different.
Overall, the Horry County District missed just 2 of its 37 AYP objectives this year. The district missed three goals in 2009. That sounds good, but falling short on just one goal means a school doesn't reach the law's definition of Adequate Yearly Progress. Horry County's superintendent says that shouldn't mark the school as a failure.
"If we move 99 out of a 100 and we don't make AYP, we're not too concerned about that because we've moved 99 children and they've progressed, so that's what really matters and is important to us," said Cindy Elsberry, Horry County Schools Superintendent.
Green Sea Floyds High School met all of its objectives, one of only 13 in the state to do so, and the benchmark for high schools went up this year, making it harder for them to make AYP.
All that makes Elsberry pretty happy with this year's results, but she says AYP isn't very personal. It doesn't measure progress for individual students. "It's bigger and it's this large goal that's comparing us to other districts in other states, but we like to look individually at every single child and how they progress," Elsberry said.
Elsberry says another problem with the No Child Left Behind law is that there is no national standard. "You don't have a real good comparison between South Carolina and other states because the measures are all different."
The goalposts under the law will be moving again and more than they did this year. State school officials say next year, it will be much tougher for schools to reach all of their objectives.
Three school districts in the state met all of their AYP objectives this year.
Click here for AYP data for all schools and districts in the state from the SC Education Department.
