Fifteen of Moore County's 22 public schools met Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) as mandated by the federal No Child Left Behind Act for the 2008-09 school year -- a significant increase from last year.

The Moore County school system made preliminary AYP results available Wednesday. They are pending approval by the State Board of Education on Aug. 6. Only eight schools in the system met all of their goals for the 2007-08 year, and 11 met their goals in 2006-07.

This year's results are the best for the district since 2004, when 16 schools met AYP.

All three Moore County high schools -- Pinecrest, Union Pines and North Moore -- failed to meet AYP this year. It is the second consecutive year Pinecrest and Union Pines have not. North Moore met all of its goals last year.

Aberdeen Primary, Aberdeen Elementary, Pinckney Academy and Westmoore Elementary also fell short.

AYP is an "all or nothing" evaluation system based on student testing. A school does not achieve AYP unless it fulfills 100 percent of its target goals.

For example, even though Westmoore Elementary met 12 of 13 -- or 92.3 percent -- of its goals this year, it still did not meet AYP.

Contact John Krahnert III at 693-2473 or by e-mail at jkrahnert@thepilot.com