2011 PSSA testsSchools weigh in on PSSA results
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Posted: Sunday, October 2, 2011 5:00 am | Updated: 6:46 am, Sun Oct 2, 2011.
The annual PSSA challenge for school districts is to show improvement among all sectors of their population.
Every district and most individual schools have achieved Adequate Yearly Progress, based on the 2011 state results. While the target is always to have 100 percent of students score proficient, those school districts that haven’t achieved that standard say they’re making an effort to plug the gap by focusing on individual educational needs.
Here is what local public school districts are saying about this year’s results, which were released by the state education department Thursday.
BENSALEM: “Especially proud”
Officials in Bensalem said they’re delighted by the test results, which show all nine schools in the district making adequate yearly progress for the first time in nearly a decade.
“We are especially proud of the high school that made AYP for the first time in nine years, and Rush and Faust that made it two years running,” said Superintendent David Baugh. “We are very happy and proud of the great effort the students and teachers made last year.”
Only Belmont Hills Elementary received a warning because not enough of its special education students were proficient in reading. Test results showed 57 percent of special education students in the third grade at Belmont at “below basic reading.”
BRISTOL: “Still evaluating”
Superintendent Gregory Wright said the district made AYP, but it needs to make improvements in the scores of students in special education.
“We’re still evaluating things, but I think I’m satisfied with the results overall,” he said. “The targets get raised every year, so not only do you have to improve, you have to improve more than you did the previous year.”
BRISTOL TOWNSHIP:
“We continue to improve”
Superintendent Samuel Lee said he was generally pleased.
“We made AYP as a district, but didn’t meet the standard in some of the subgroups at two of our elementary schools, Clara Barton and Lafayette,” he said. “It was by razor-thin margins. We continue to improve, and we’re happy about that, but we also understand there is still a lot of work to be done as the bar continues to be raised as we progress toward 2014.”
BUCKS COUNTY TECHNICAL HIGH SCHOOL: “Can’t use excuses”
The comprehensive technical high school in Bristol Township failed to make AYP for the fourth straight year.
Administrative Director Leon Poeske said one factor is that the school has a higher percentage of special education students than any of its six sending districts of Bensalem, Bristol, Bristol Township, Morrisville, Neshaminy and Pennsbury.
“But we can’t use excuses and have to do the best we can to make improvements,” he said.
This year, BCTHS instituted a freshman academy that will give some ninth-graders extra help in reading and math.
“We’re looking at data to pinpoint where our students need improvement and our teachers will focus on that,” said Poeske.
BUCKS COUNTY MONTESSORI CHARTER SCHOOL:
“Highly pleased”
“I am highly pleased with our results,” said Brian Long, principal of Bucks County Montessori Charter School.
The charter school in Falls again earned AYP status.
Long pointed to often “dramatic” improvement among fourth-, fifth- and sixth-grade students as proof that the Montessori-based school gives the kids a firm grasp on what the state expects them to learn in the classroom.
The one concern is the scores of third-graders, the principal said. But BCMCS staff knew going into the tests that the kids would “struggle” on the exams because they hadn’t fared well on other previous standardized tests, Long said.
“We are going to really work with that group and identify the students who need help,” he said.
CENTENNIAL:
“Not the whole picture”
Though the district made AYP for the sixth year in a row, William Tennent High School was identified by the state for “Corrective Action II-Year 3” status.
Since last year, the district has created and followed a plan for school improvement, and it focuses on addressing the needs of all students, including high school students receiving special education services and economically disadvantaged students, said Superintendent Jennifer Cressman.
“We convened groups to look at assessment results on a weekly basis and adjust instruction for those students who were not mastering the curriculum. What we’ve gotten good at is individualized attention,” she said.
The district is continuing to refine its high school reading program and is developing a school improvement plan.
Overall, the district population is doing extremely well, she said. While districts consider 11th grade PSSA results to determine readiness for graduation, the test is only one measure of knowledge, Cressman said.
“What is always important to remember is that important decisions should never be made on one set of data. We have to look at performance across many different aspects of knowledge we expect kids to master in high school. The PSSA is not the whole picture,” she said.
CENTER FOR STUDENT
LEARNING CHARTER SCHOOL
AT PENNSBURY: “Just not fair”
The alternative school is in the midst of a legal challenge with the state regarding the AYP designation process, said Thomas Reiley, executive director of the Center for Student Learning Charter School at Pennsbury.
CSL officials asked Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court to direct the state education department to include scores from tests done at the alternative school in the results of the students’ home districts.
“This test is supposed to be based on the assessment of the school. But with our population being transient, the results are not a reflection on our school,” Reiley said.
The school is in Corrective Action II first year, based on the 2011 PSSA results.
Only six or seven of the 11th-graders who most recently took the PSSA tests have been at CSL since middle school, Reilly said.
“It’s just not fair” to give the alternative school AYP designations because students are arriving and departing from CSL throughout the year, depending on their individual situation, Reiley said.
The court agreed and state education officials have until mid-October to decide whether they’ll appeal the ruling.
COUNCIL ROCK:
“Always disappointed”
Three schools in the Council Rock School District did not make AYP. They are Churchville Elementary School and the district’s two high schools, Council Rock High School North and Council Rock High School South.
Barry Desko, Council Rock’s director of secondary education, said those schools didn’t make AYP based on the scores of special education students in the Individualized Education Program subgroup.
“You’re always disappointed if a school doesn’t make AYP,” Desko said. “We’ll spend the time figuring out what we can do to support those students and get back into AYP status.”
Last year, all the district’s schools made AYP.
“Our target is always to get 100 percent of our students proficient,” Desko said.
Churchville and Council Rock North didn’t make AYP because not enough special education students were proficient in math. Council Rock South didn’t make AYP because not enough special education students demonstrated proficiency on the math and reading tests.
MORRISVILLE:
“Hard work pays off”
Morrisville School District officials said they’re happy about the PSSA results released last week.
The entire district made AYP this time around, unlike last year, when the high school did not meet the standard.
District Superintendent Bill Ferrara said that “making AYP goes to show the hard work of the students, teachers and staff.”
NESHAMINY: “Top priority”
While the Neshaminy School District achieved adequate yearly progress for the third straight year, the high school didn’t reach that goal once again.
“We are going to do everything we can to change this and make (AYP) our top priority,” school board President Ritchie Webb said Friday. He added that he is “obviously disappointed” that Neshaminy High School failed to meet AYP in 2011 for the fifth year in a row.
Webb said a presentation featuring an analysis of the PSSA scores will be delivered at the Oct. 11 public board meeting.
“Hopefully, this will help us identify the problems so we can move on correcting them,” Webb said.
Even though Webb pointed out that the low scores became an issue prior to the beginning of the district’s contract dispute with its teachers in 2008, he added that the impasse could be making it more difficult to improve test results.
PENNSBURY: “Unrealistic levels”
Students showed continued improvement overall on the 2011 PSSA tests in math and reading, despite benchmarks that are “approaching unrealistic levels,” Pennsbury Superintendent Kevin J. McHugh said.
The state required 67 percent of students in each grade to demonstrate proficiency on the tests and 72 percent of students to be proficient or better in reading. Pennsbury earned Adequate Yearly Progress status.
“We are extremely proud of the work that our students, teachers, and administrators do to ensure student success,” McHugh said.
He pointed to improving trends among fifth-, eighth- and 11th-grade scores as proof of what can happen with “curricular improvements, maintenance of high-quality programs and rigorous graduation requirements.”
“The upward trending of student proficiency rates at the high school is particularly significant, with 11th grade rising from 68 percent in 2008 to 84 percent in 2011 in reading, and a rise in math from 59 percent in 2008 to 73 percent in math in 2011,” McHugh said.
The district’s 11 elementary schools and three middle schools each met their individual AYP goals, Pennsbury spokeswoman Ann Langtry said.
However, not enough students in the economically disadvantaged subgroup at Pennsbury High School demonstrated that they are learning at grade level on the math and reading tests.
That has led the high school to be placed in Corrective Action II-3rd year status.
The school board has approved McHugh’s request to establish a task force to examine what can be done to help students in the economically disadvantaged group and other subgroups as designated by the state.
SCHOOL LANE CHARTER SCHOOL: Mixed results
School Lane Charter School has made AYP for the third year in a row, according to test results released by the state.
Students at the Bensalem charter school showed improved math proficiency in grades four, six and seven, while math numbers dropped slightly for those in the third, fifth and eighth grades.
Students in the seventh, eighth and ninth grades tested higher in reading proficiency than in years before, while proficiency rates fell among those in grades three, four and seven.
School Lane opened in 1998 as the first charter school in Bucks County and last received a warning from the state in 2007.
14 comments:
Why are the numbers going down? Why is Stay On Course avoiding the subject as they spiral backwards and why have they not posted them on their website to boast higher PSSA's? Because they are not higher, they have gone down in most areas. Could this have to do with cuts in aides and taking away other services and support and options for the kids lowering their self esteem, lack of caring by their leaders, a 'who cares as long as we dont raise taxes' mentaility so I can make more money on my rental properties
From the Stay on Course website:
As our campaign slogan says, "Test Scores Up, School Taxes Down!"
If it says it in a slogan, it must be true, right?
wait till next year, the best teacher we have are next
Why because they make more then new teachers will
Wouldn't you feel alot better if you thought more people cared?
We just got our daughter's individual PSSA scores yesterday. Is this when everybody else in MSD got them? And isn't that late?
Well, it was only a matter of time before our Russian followers weighed in. Here's a comment they just left.
"Всех интересуют роботы, ну а кто интересуется? Все же это тоже имеет значение"
Translation:
"All do interest robots, well and who is interested? Nevertheless this also has a value."
Profound or spam? You be the judge.
taxes down test scores up
well seems the part of that is right And it's what they care about most Taxes. they care a rats ass about the kids
An entire rat's patootie? The whole thing?
I didn't realize they cared that much!
For the Love of Morrisville!
oh, I think I threw up in my mouth on that one
"for the love of morrisville"
we're not that bad
are we?
Just don't throw up in anyone else's mouth - or at least without their prior consent.
So, uh, about those PSSA scores...
Darn Phillies! Pesky Cardinals!
For the Love of Morrisville!
Lead by a guy, Bill Hellmann CPA, who said he advises people NOT to invest a dime in Morrisville.
Some love.
I've been taking on a new direction
But I have to say
I've been thinking about my own protection
It scares me to feel this way
What's love got to do, got to do with it
What's love but a sweet old fashioned notion
What's love got to do, got to do with it
Who needs a heart when a heart can be broken
Unfortunately SOC (figuratively) treats people the way Ike treated Tina. That would be not good, like that's a funny way to show your love. The other L word (Lie) is more apt.
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