More Pennsylvania schools this year are likely to make adequate yearly progress on state tests because the federal government has approved a measure that considers student growth, not just whether students are proficient.

If this measure, called a growth model, had been in effect for the 2008 state math and reading tests, the state estimated last fall that 242 more schools would have made adequate yearly progress, known as AYP, which is part of the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

That would have pushed the percentage of schools making AYP to 80 percent instead of the 72 percent that did so. It would have affected more than a fourth of the 869 schools that did not make AYP in 2008.

U.S. Secretary Education Secretary Margaret Spellings last week announced approval of the use of growth models in Colorado and Minnesota and conditionally in Pennsylvania and Texas. Eleven other states already have approval to use growth models.

Schools or districts must have certain percentages of students scoring proficient or better in math and reading. The percentage increases in steps until all are expected to be proficient by 2014. Schools with large enough subgroups -- such as special education, low-income and minority students -- also must meet the standards for those subgroups.

The growth model will recognize the work of schools that began with very low proficiency rates and have seen strong growth even though enough students are not yet proficient, said state Education Secretary Gerald Zahorchak in a news release yesterday.

"Without this growth model, the academic gains of many of these schools would have been discounted or overlooked entirely, which is patently unfair to these students and their teachers," he said.

Pennsylvania's growth model is based on the Pennsylvania Value-Added Assessment System, which began in pilot form in 2002.

PVAAS uses at least three years of data from schools and students to determine whether a student shows enough growth to be on a trajectory to success.