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The Republican Herald
July 17, 2011
Headline: Grading our schools: 5 area districts improve PSSA scores
By Leslie Richardson
Five county school districts improved from last year's ranking in Times-Shamrock newspapers' annual analysis of academic performance.
The districts - Mahanoy Area, Minersville, Pine Grove, Shenandoah Valley and Williams Valley - showed improvement in Pennsylvania System of School Assessment test scores compared with state averages.
The newspapers analyzed 2009-10 PSSA test scores and SAT test scores for 500 districts and more than 3,000 schools statewide, as well as a dozen other key educational factors as part of its annual Grading Our Schools special report. Districts were also ranked in each category against other districts in the state. Test results for the 2010-11 school year are not yet available.
This year's Grading Our Schools report includes charts on the region's 15 public school districts, as well as comprehensive online databases with searchable information on all 500 school districts in the state available at http://republicanherald.com/data-center. The databases include educators' profiles with salaries, financial information, district and student demographics and test scores.
Statistics and PSSA scores are available for public school districts that fall entirely or partially within Schuylkill County: Blue Mountain, Hamburg Area, Hazleton Area, Mahanoy Area, Minersville Area, North Schuylkill, Pine Grove Area, Pottsville Area, Saint Clair Area, Schuylkill Haven Area, Shenandoah Valley, Tamaqua Area, Tri-Valley, Upper Dauphin Area and Williams Valley.
A closer look
In 2009-10, Shenandoah Valley met state averages in third-grade reading, fifth-grade writing, sixth-grade reading and eighth-grade reading, math and science, after falling below those averages in 2008-09.
"It is always good to improve and in a school like ours with such an increased enrollment of (English as a second language) students, it's a tribute to good teaching," Philip Andras, Shenandoah Valley high school principal, said Monday. "We have the largest ESL population in (Intermediate Unit 29) and our goal is to increase the proficiency of students who have limited proficiency in reading and writing as well as putting other interventions in place to help our students succeed."
Andras said most recently, the district has gone to a standard alignment system as a curriculum model, which provides resources for aligning a district's curriculum to current state standards.
"Some may see it as teaching to the test, but I don't see it that way," Andras said. "I think it's a very good effort and we will continue to look at reading and writing, which we have already shown improvement in."
Andras said the district has a large special education population that requires specific teaching methods and alignment to the curriculum.
He also said with the 11th-grade PSSA tests going by the wayside in favor of exit exams, the district is looking at providing additional curriculum to help those students have success in those exams.
"There is always a new direction to take in education and we are always trying to stay ahead of the curve."
Andras also touted the current expansion project as a "temporary inconvenience to provide a permanent improvement in education."
"The additional classroom space will help us to deliver the educational services our students need," he said.
In 2008-09, Williams Valley failed to meet state averages in every category except third-grade math. In 2009-10, the district met the state average in fourth-grade science, fifth-grade writing and sixth-grade math and reading.
"The district has really placed an emphasis on test scores and brought in software and additional courses to help prepare the students better," District Superintendent Donald Burkhardt said Wednesday. "We are going to continue these things in the future to help prepare our students for PSSAs."
Joie Green, acting superintendent at Mahanoy Area, said the district hasn't done anything different in terms of preparing students for PSSAs.
"We just require our teachers to meet professionally as a department and as a grade-level team once a week to discuss data, where students are in terms of progress, and parent communication," Green said.
Two school districts in our area, Saint Clair and Schuylkill Haven, actually did worse, missing more state averages than they did last year.
Meanwhile, Minersville Area, Hazleton Area and North Schuylkill were flagged by a report as having irregularities in their 2008-09 PSSA scores. The irregularities could indicate possible cheating.
North Schuylkill Superintendent Andrew Smarkanic said Tuesday he learned of the report earlier that day and did not have the chance to read it. Although he wasn't superintendent at the time the tests were administered, he assumes students did better on those tests due to preparatory testing that was instituted before the 2009 tests.
Minersville Superintendent M. Joseph Brady said he had no advance knowledge of the report that flagged the district because of an irregularity in the sixth-grade reading score.
"I keep accurate records of all test scores and what I can tell you is that class, which is the class of 2015, also performed exceptionally well on PSSA testing in third grade."
Brady said as sixth-graders, the class of 88 students was scored at 94.3 percent proficiency in reading, and as third-graders, the class, which had a few more students at the time, scored at 92.9 percent proficiency.
"Statistically, they look at the state average and if a district jumps 5 or 6 percentage points, they are flagged, but these students performed well both years," Brady said.
Brady also said Minersville scores above the state minimum level to make AYP every year.
"I am proud of the score and I believe it is a result of the dedication and competency of the staff," he said.
The Department of Education report stated that information has surfaced indicating the possibility of cheating in at least three dozen districts, but inconsistencies do not necessarily indicate that cheating occurred. Still, the state ordered districts to investigate the suspicious scores.
Budge concerns
While school districts across the county work to improve test scores, aiming to reach 100 percent proficiency, state budget cuts have administrators scrambling to provide for students' educational needs with less money.
According to the Pennsylvania State Education Association website, the 2011-12 state budget includes $860 million in cuts to kindergarten-through-12th-grade public education statewide.
Compared to the 2010-11 budget, this year, more than $10.5 million is being cut from Schuylkill County school districts' budgets, according to the office of Rep. Joseph Markosek, state House Committee on Appropriations chairman.
At Mahanoy Area, art and foreign languages are being streamlined.
"We had two art teachers retire and we are not replacing them," Green said Wednesday. "We also had a librarian and a French/German teacher retire and they are not being replaced. This means some of the teachers will now teach kindergarten through 12 instead of in a certain building."
Brady said Minersville lost $740,000 in federal money this year, but was prepared for that when working on the 2011-12 budget.
"Our total revenue sources were depleted but because we used past stimulus money for technology, books and other supplies, we did not have to cut staff because of the loss of revenue," Brady said.
Highs, lows
Under the federal No Child Left Behind Act, all students are required to be proficient in math and reading by 2014. School districts in Schuylkill County have some work to do before meeting that requirement, which may eventually change under the Obama administration.
Andras said the goal of 100 percent proficiency by 2014 as set by No Child Left Behind standards is a challenge.
"The state and federal government has established the goals and as a school district, we are challenged to meet those goals," Andras said. "We want to see every child educated to the best of their potential, and we continue to work with budgetary, population and demographic restraints to identify students in need of additional instruction and deal with that population."
Burkhardt said he doesn't believe any school district will meet 100 percent efficiency by the deadline.
"It's tough and unrealistic," he said.
Congress has yet to reauthorize NCLB, also called the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.
Times-Shamrock newspapers also analyzed proficiency rates on the PSSA tests. High and low 2009-10 PSSA combined percentages for advanced and proficient scores for the 12 county school districts as well as Hazleton Area in Luzerne County, Upper Dauphin in Dauphin County and Hamburg Area in Berks County, are:
- Third-grade math (state average 84.5 percent)
High: Schuylkill Haven Area, 96.2 percent; Hamburg Area, 96.2 percent
Low: Pottsville Area, 75.3 percent
- Third-grade reading (state average 75.2 percent)
High: Minersville, 87.1 percent
Low: Pottsville Area, 64.5 percent
- Fourth-grade math (state average 84.9 percent)
High: Tri-Valley, 92.9 percent
Low: Williams Valley, 75.3 percent
- Fourth-grade reading (state average 72.9 percent)
High: Blue Mountain, 78.9 percent
Low: Williams Valley, 56.2 percent
- Fourth-grade science (state average 81.4 percent)
High: Williams Valley, 93.2 percent
Low: Shenandoah Valley, 73.4 percent
- Fifth-grade math (state average 74.4 percent)
High: Pine Grove, 93.8 percent
Low: Saint Clair Area, 51.0 percent
- Fifth-grade reading (state average 64.1 percent)
High: Blue Mountain, 78.1 percent
Low: Saint Clair Area, 42.8 percent
- Fifth-grade writing (state average 61.8 percent)
High: Schuylkill Haven Area, 85.6 percent
Low: Saint Clair Area, 40.8 percent
- Sixth-grade math (state average 78.0 percent)
High: Pine Grove Area, 91.1 percent
Low: Saint Clair Area, 40.8 percent
- Sixth-grade reading (state average 68.8 percent)
High: Minersville Area, 85.3 percent
Low: Mahanoy Area, 41.6 percent
- Seventh-grade math (state average 77.9 percent)
High: Hamburg Area, 88.3 percent
Low: Saint Clair Area, 62.0 percent
- Seventh-grade reading (state average 73.5 percent)
High: Blue Mountain, 88.1 percent
Low: North Schuylkill, 60.3 percent
- Eighth-grade math (state average 75.2)
High: Mahanoy Area, 90.9 percent
Low: Williams Valley, 38.3 percent
- Eighth-grade reading (state average 81.9 percent)
High: Mahanoy Area, 94.9 percent
Low: Williams Valley, 65.1 percent
- Eighth-grade science (state average 57.2)
High: Tri-Valley, 72.3 percent
Low: Williams Valley, 43.0 percent
- Eighth-grade writing (state average 75.2)
High: North Schuylkill, 87.1 percent
Low: Williams Valley, 51.8 percent
- 11th-grade math (state average 59.6 percent)
High: Upper Dauphin, 65.2 percent
Low: Shenandoah Valley, 31.2 percent
- 11th-grade reading (state average 67.2 percent)
High: Blue Mountain, 76.7 percent
Low: Williams Valley, 50.0 percent
- 11th-grade science (state average 39.8 percent)
High: Pine Grove Area, 51.2 percent
Low: Williams Valley, 17.3 percent
- 11th-grade writing (state average 80.7 percent)
High: Pottsville Area, 92.9 percent
Low: Mahanoy Area, 40.8 percent
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