The York Dispatch (Pennsylvania) February 4, 2009

HEADLINE:  Schools get eighth way to measure student proficiency (video)

By Andrew Shaw

The state has a new way to measure student proficiency under No Child Left Behind, and York County school officials think they'll immediately benefit.

The Pennsylvania Value Added Assessment System, or PVAAS, will likely be the buzz word at school board meetings and administrative offices in coming months.

Although it's been around for several years, it wasn't until this month the U.S. Department of Education gave the state approval to use PVAAS as an accountability measure under No Child Left Behind.

Schools already have seven different methods of reaching federal requirements. No Child Left Behind gives benchmarks each year for schools to reach, with the ultimate goal of having every child proficient by 2014.

PVAAS would be the eighth and would serve as another way for districts to meet the requirements without actually reaching benchmarks for student proficiency. It allows districts to make adequate yearly progress toward proficiency through projections of future performance, not by comparing this year's data with the prior year's data.

It also takes into account students moving into and out of the district, giving a more exact picture of the school's performance.

"It's extremely helpful to us. You'll be able to follow growth over a period of years," said York City Superintendent Sharon Miller.

PVAAS would give York City and other districts credit for showing they'll make sig-

nificant growth in future years; the exact amount of academic growth is still being discussed. That should help them make adequate yearly progress toward student proficiency goals under No Child Left Behind, when they otherwise wouldn't make it.

Here's how it works: Student test data from the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment will be put through a complex series of algorithms, the PVAAS system. It will show school officials and the state long-term achievement projections for a group of students, whether it's an entire grade or a subgroup such as special education.

If the projections show that group will make sufficient academic growth to become proficient by 2014, the state will say the school has met its No Child Left Behind requirements.