Ellen Lockyer, KSKA – Anchorage
The state Education Department is intervening to help the poorest-performing school district in the state. The Yupiit district, serves about 450 students in the villages of Tuluksak and Akiak. It has been failing to meet the federal Adequate Yearly Progress – or AYP – standards for four years.
It’s the first school where the state has intervened under the AYP standard, as required by the federal No Child Left Behind law. Department of Education information officer Eric Fry says Sanborn will work with local school district officials, teachers and parents to help boost student performance scores.
The state trustee’s job is to monitor the Yupiit School District’s plan for teacher development, and to help the district to find the best practices for instruction. Fry says no Yupiit School District personnel will lose their jobs, nor is any blame being put on teachers there.
Fry says there is no deadline for improvement. He says the trustee will stay in place for at least three years until all three schools improve their reading, writing and math scores.
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