What is Program Improvement?
The federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) requires the state and district to annually review the academic progress of federally funded Title I schools, and to identify schools in need of improvement. These schools are identified as Program Improvement (PI) schools after two consecutive years of not making adequate yearly progress (AYP).
California determines AYP for elementary schools by considering the following measures:
- The percentage of students scoring at the “proficient” or “advanced” level on the California Standards
- Tests for English-language arts and mathematics
- The percentage of students participating in those tests
- California’s own accountability measurement of progress, the Academic Performance Index (API)
