Schools get report cards too! Just like your son receives a report card to share information about his learning and behavioral progress, so too do schools get rated on their progress at meeting the needs of students enrolled. Annual Yearly Progress (AYP) is a term that refers to how well a school is meeting the needs of all its students, including those with special learning needs. Just because a school doesn’t make its AYP goals does not mean that parents should withdraw their children and look for other settings. Schools with large numbers of students who are English language learners or who for some reason may have had a large turn-over of seasoned teaching staff may struggle to meet their AYP goals during a particular year. They then must design and implement school-wide improvement plans that are intended to turn things around and get student achievement (as measured by a combination of state and local assessments) back on track. Devoting careful attention and targeted resources to these school-wide activities can actually be a good thing for students like your son whose special status is sure to be the focus of scrutiny as the school strives to satisfy its AYP goals. Visit RTINetwork.org for cutting-edge information about strategies and approaches that enable schools to achieve AYP goals status and address the needs of students with LD.