U.S. Pilot of AYP 'Growth' Models Advances

The states that made the first cut to qualify for a new pilot program that would let them use so-called growth models to judge whether schools and districts meet their performance targets under the federal No Child Left Behind Act are using a variety of approaches to tackle the task.

The Department of Education announced March 31 that it had selected growth-model proposals from eight states—Alaska, Arkansas, Arizona, Delaware, Florida, North Carolina, Oregon, and Tennessee—to move to the next round of reviews for the pilot.

The program, which Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings unveiled in November, is designed to test whether an accountability system based on the academic growth students show from year to year would be as fair and reliable...