Fayette County schools once again made the grade.

Fayette County School System is the only system in metro Atlanta with 100 percent of its schools making AYP (Adequate Yearly Progress)for six consecutive years, according to school system spokesperson Melinda Berry-Dreisbach.

Fayette is among 44 systems in Georgia with all schools meeting AYP requirements in 2009. Of these systems, most have less than 10 schools compared to Fayette’s 28, Berry-Dreisbach said.

All of Fayette’s schools have made AYP each of the six years since the assessment was implemented and Fayette is the only metro Atlanta school system with all schools having made AYP over the six-year period, said Berry-Dreisbach.

Initial results released Tuesday show more than 79 percent of Georgia’s public schools made AYP, according to the Georgia Dept. of Education (DOE). That figure represents a 10 point jump over 2008.

“The initial AYP results demonstrate that our students are continuing to make excellent progress even as we raise expectations,” said state Superintendent of Schools Kathy Cox. “Clearly, our teachers and students are working harder than ever and we’re seeing the results.”

AYP is the formula used to determine if schools are meeting expectations under the federal No Child Left Behind Act. It consists of three parts: test participation, academic achievement and another statistic, called a “second indicator.”

The academic goals continue to rise every few years toward a goal of 100 percent proficiency for all students by 2014.

This year, all of the academic goals remained the same as 2008, although the graduation rate bar went up, according to DOE.