At What Point do Schools Fail to Meet Adequate Yearly Progress and What Factors are Most Closely Associated with Their Failure?: A Discrete Time Hazard Model

No Child Left Behind (NCLB) (United States Department of Education, 2002) was designed to identify schools that fail to meet the educational needs of low-income and minority students. Additionally, it was designed to identify high schools that consistently have high numbers of students who do not perform at a proficient academic level and do not graduate from high school within four years. While the stated intent of NCLB and subgroup reporting is to reduce the achievement gap for minorities, economically disadvantaged students, and limited English proficient (LEP) students, the requirements for meeting AYP in these subgroups poses the greatest challenge for schools, especially those with large percentages of students who fall into these categories.

The purpose of this study was to analyze the survival rate of Texas public high schools in meeting AYP since the inception of NCLB, and to examine whether there are particular variables that make schools more susceptible to fail to meet AYP. Initially, the purpose of this study was to examine when public school and charter school campuses were most at risk for failing to meet Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) and which variables were most closely associated with that failure.