All five foothill high schools met their state and federal requirements last year.

Each year, high schools must meet Adequate Yearly Progress standards, the federal accountability standard mandated by the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). AYP criteria encompasses four areas: participation rate, percent proficient, California's Academic Performance Index (API) and graduation rate. Each of these four areas has specific requirements. Participation rate and percent proficient criteria must be met in both English-language arts (ELA) and in mathematics.

Exeter, Farmersville, Lindsay, Strathmore and Woodlake high schools all met each of the four AYP criteria for 2007. To meet the 2007 graduation rate criteria for AYP, a school must have a graduation rate of at least 82.9% or improvement in the graduation rate of at least 0.1 from the previous year.

According to data from 2006-07 school year, Exeter Union High School has a total of about 200 seniors, Farmersville High School has about 133, Lindsay High School has 199, Woodlake Union High School has 170 and Strathmore High has about 86.

None of the local high schools are in program improvement, a category used to identify schools that have not met AYP for two consecutive years, but many elementary and middle schools are in their fifth year of not meeting AYP.

Lincoln Elementary, Washington Elementary and Steve Garvey Junior High in Lindsay are all in Year 5 of Program Improvement after failing to meet AYP last year. Garvey and Lincoln have been in program improvement status since the NCLB began in 1997-98. Snowden Elementary in Farmersville and Woodlake Valley Middle School are also in Year 5 of PI after failing to meet AYP since the 2000-01 school year. Washington Elementary in Lindsay is in Year 5 after failing to meet AYP since 2003-04.

Farmersville Junior High School and Hester Elementary in Farmersville, Castle Rock Elementary in Woodlake and Jefferson Elementary in Lindsay are in Year 4 (2004-05) of PI.

Freedom Elementary in Farmersville and Sunnyside Elementary in Strathmore are in Year 2 (2006-07) in PI. Sequoia Union Elementary School in Lemon Cove is in Year 1 of PI.

Year 1 and 2 of PI requires that schools form liason teams that work to reform teaching strategies, provide parents with the option of transfporting their student to another school meeting AYP and setting aside funds.

In Year 3, California requires that schools take corrective action, including one of the following - replacing school staff “relevant to the failure to make AYP,” institute new curriculum, decrease management authority, extend the school year or restructure the school's organization.

In Year 4 and 5, schools are required to incorporate one of the following forms of “alternative governance,” such as closing the school and reopening as a charter school, replacing most of the school staff or enter into a contract with a company, such as a private management company with a record of effectively running a public school.

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