Bibb County schools are celebrating some good news from the state.
The Georgia Department of Education reports that 24 schools made Adequate Yearly Progress as measured by the state. That's three more than last year.
Some other bright spots from the school system:
Howard High School made AYP in its third year of operation. It's the only Bibb County high school to make AYP this year.
Bloomfield Middle School made AYP for the second year in a row. That moves it off the state's Needs Improvement list.
"Bloomflied was actually constructed in 2006, and we had never made AYP until last year," said Principal Efrem Yarber.
"Math was a big deficit for us. Our students scored really low in math, in the concepts of math, so we had tutorials for students, special sessions where those teachers would pull students during the school day and that helped us bring up our math scores" Yarber said.
Teachers at Bloomfield Middle School say they must continue to push forward.
Sixth grade teacher Nadiarah Mayweather said, "When you have moments like this, hearing that we met AYP, it give you a that little motivation to keep going so that you can reach for those other higher heights, because AYP is not the only stopping grounds."
Twelve Bibb schools are now Distinguished Schools, for making AYP for three or more years.
They are:
Bernd, Morgan and Skyview elementaries, which made AYP for the third consecutive year; Heard Elementary, on the list for the eighth year; and Alexander II, Carter, Heritage, Lane, Porter and Springdale elementaries, and Vineville Academy, which have made AYP for nine straight years.
AYP is the formula used to determine whether schools are meeting expectations under the federal No Child Left Behind Act. Schools are rated on test participation, academic achievement and other factors.
These Bibb schools joined the AYP list this year: Brookdale, Bruce, Hartley, Ingram Pye, Williams elementary schools; Appling, Miller and Howard middle schools, and Howard High.
These schools dropped off the AYP list: Ballard Hudson and Weaver middle school, Burgard, Burdell, Jones, Rosa Taylor and Union elementary schools