The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction released preliminary Annual Yearly Progress Numbers earlier this week.

The news is good the local school districts as Bertie County Schools, Gates County Schools, Hertford County Public Schools and Northampton County Schools saw an increase in the number of schools that met AYP standards.

The information released in preliminary data and will not be considered final until approved by the North Carolina State Board of Education on August 6.

Bertie County Schools

In Bertie County, six of the district’s eight schools or 75 percent met AYP. It is the first time since 2005 the district has had more than two schools meet AYP.

In last year’s test results, only West Bertie Elementary and the Bertie STEM School met AYP in the county. This year those two met AYP for the second consecutive year while the district added Bertie Middle School, Aulander Elementary School, Colerain Elementary School and Windsor Elementary School to the list of those who accomplished the task.

Windsor Elementary, under first-year principal Renee Duckenfiled, reached AYP goals for the first time since 2004. Aulander and Colerain each made AYP for the first time since 2006.

Bertie’s STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) School has met AYP in both years of its existence.

Bertie High School failed to meet AYP again in 2008-09. The school has only met its goal one time since 2003. This year the school met just five of 13 targets that were set. That was one down from last year when the school met six of the 13 goals.

Bertie Academy (the umbrella for the three alternative schools) failed to meet AYP as it met only one of two target goals.

The results for the Bertie Early College High School are not available yet as it is a Special Evaluation School.

Gates County Schools

Gates County Schools saw two of their five academic entities reach AYP. Those two were Central Middle School and T.S. Cooper Elementary.

Last year only Gatesville Elementary made AYP in Gates County, although T.S. Cooper met 16 of the 17 goals that were established.

T.S. Cooper reached AYP for the first time since 2003-04 although they have never missed it by more than one than one target. Central Middle reached the goal for the first time since 2004 as well. Last year they met 13 of 21 targets.

Buckland Elementary just missed AYP for the third consecutive year. They met 16 of 17 goals for the second consecutive year after hitting 12 of 13 marks in 2006-07.

Gatesville Elementary almost met the standard for the second year in a row as they met 16 of 17 standards. Gates County High School was also very close as they met 16 of 17 targets.

Hertford County Schools

The news for Hertford County Public Schools was the best in the district’s history of AYP goals.

In 2008-09, the district had three of six schools meet AYP for the first time ever. The most schools the district had previously was the two in 2003-04. In fact, no school in Hertford County had reached AYP since 2005-06.

This year, Ahoskie Elementary School, Bearfield Primary School and Hertford County Middle School all met the AYP standards.

Principal Carson Watford led Hertford County Middle School to reach AYP for the first time ever. They met all 21 goals set before them.

For Ahoskie Elementary it was the first time meeting AYP since 2004 while Bearfield met AYP in 2006. The school had a first-year principal in Stan Warren.

Hertford County High School met nine of 15 targets this year which is an improvement over the five they met last year. Riverview Elementary also made strides, reaching 15 of 17 targets after hitting only 11 last year.

The C.S. Brown Students Development Center reached two of three targets.

Results for the Hertford County Early College High School are not available as it is a Special Evaluation School.

Northampton County Schools

Seven of 10 Northampton County schools met AYP during the 2008-09 school year, up from just one last year. Seven also met AYP in 2007 and six made it in 2006.

Those who met AYP included Central Elementary School, Conway Middle School, Garysburg Elementary School, Gaston Middle School, Squire Elementary School, Willis Hare Elementary School and Rich Square W.S. Creecy Elementary School.

Only Central Elementary School made AYP last year. That school has met the AYP criteria in all three years of its existence.

Conway Middle hit 14 of 17 targets in 2008 and met AYP in 2007 while Gaston Middle School met 13 a year ago and also made AYP in 2007.

Garysburg Elementary made it for the first time since 2006 while Willis Hare reached AYP in 2006 and 2007 and hit 13 of 17 targets last year. Squire Elementary made AYP in 2007 and Rich Square W.C. Creecy reached the mark for the first time since 2006.

The AYP results were the last for Garysburg Elementary and Rich Square W.S. Creecy, both of which closed at the end of the 2008-09 academic year.

Neither Northampton County High School – East or Northampton County High School – West made AYP. NCHS-East met six of 13 targets, which is the same as a year ago. West reached one of three target goals. The school made AYP in 2007 while East reached its goals in the same year.

The NCHS-West STEM School reached just three of 12 targets and failed to meet AYP for the second consecutive year.

The Northampton County Alternative School, which also closed at the end of last year, scores are not yet available as the school is a Special Evaluation School.

More information about the school district’s test scores will be available in an upcoming edition of the Roanoke-Chowan News-Herald.