Ames Elementary Schools Placed on Watch List

Three Ames elementary schools were placed on a watch list and Ames Middle and Ames High schools remain listed as schools in need of assistance after a review of Adequate Yearly Progress for the 2012-13 school year.

The state released each school districts' annual progress reports this week.

In Ames: Meeker, Mitchell and Sawyer elementary schools were put on watch list status for reading and Mitchell and Sawyer were also put on the watch list status for math.

The middle and high schools remain listed as in need of assistance for both subjects.

Ames schools are among a growing number of schools in the state that failed to make adequate yearly progress, according to a report in the Ames Tribune. Results from 2012-13 showed that 869 of Iowa's 1,361 public schools missed their adequate yearly progress goals.

Many more schools will find them selves in trouble in 2014 when the No Child Left Behind requires 100 percent of students to be proficient in math and reading.

“This is the year that according to No Child Left Behind, the expectation is that 100 percent of our students will be proficient,” Ames Associate Superintendent Mandy Ross told the Tribune. “So we can anticipate that a lot of schools will be challenged by that particular target.”

In 2012-13 just 94 percent of students needed to be proficient, a release from the Ames School District said.

All Ames students made gains overall, but some subgroups failed to meet the No Child Left Behind targets earning the watch list label.

Meeker Elementary School missed its reading goal but students showed more than 21 percent growth in reading levels, Ross said, and Meeker has been designated as a blue ribbon school.

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