The Follow The Child Growth Model calculates growth targets for every student and tallies the number of students meeting these individual growth targets. If the student is being tested for the first time, proficiency is the student’s growth target. Otherwise, student growth targets are based on the student’s test score from the previous year. If the student was previously below proficient, his or her growth target is based on closing the distance to proficiency. The amount of required growth is dependent on how far below proficient the student previously scored. The “distances” students must make up each year are aggressive, in that considerably more than one year’s growth is required each year for students below proficient; otherwise, the gaps would not close. However, those distances are consistent with the findings of research on the size of achievement gains that can be reasonably expected from remedial activity, i.e. tutoring, under optimal conditions. If a student was previously proficient, the growth target is designed to encourage a level that exceeds proficiency.
The Follow The Child Growth Model supplements the existing AYP index model. This proposal captures the spirit of No Child Left Behind and the urgency to move each child to academic proficiency. In New Hampshire’s Follow The Child Growth Model proposal, schools are accountable for each child and will follow the progress of each child beyond the point at which proficiency is attained. Even now, in New Hampshire, the Follow The Child school districts are accountable for meeting the needs of each child. This means that each school needs to show improvement as long as it has even one child who does not meet the standard for proficiency.
 New Hampshire Department of Education submits revised Follow The Child Growth Model proposal to the US Education Department. (February 15, 2008)
- Letters of Support
(These documents are in PDF)
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