Budget problems or not, Fayette County schools topped all others in the Atlanta metro area in one critical measure.

In its Oct. 1 report of the federally-mandated Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP), the Ga. Dept. of Education’s figures show that Fayette County was the only system in metro Atlanta with 100 percent of its schools making AYP for six consecutive years.

Final tabulations across the state showed that a total of 86 percent of schools achieved AYP, up from 80 percent in 2008.

Meanwhile, 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 school system spokesperson Melinda Berry-Dreisbach.

AYP is the formula used to determine if schools are meeting expectations under the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

The academic goals continue to rise every few years toward a goal of 100 percent proficiency for all students by 2014. This year, all academic goals remained the same as 2008, although the graduation rate bar went up.

AYP consists of three parts: test participation, academic achievement and another statistic, called a “second indicator.”