Posted: Tuesday, December 10, 2013 6:35 pm | Updated: 10:47 am, Wed Dec 11, 2013.
HARRISBURG -- After fixing data reporting errors, the state Department of Education is set to release Wednesday the statewide results of Pennsylvania's new school report card system.The state has developed a formula-based method of grading schools that replaces the former No Child Left Behind system and assigns schools a rating on a 100-point scale.
In October, the state launched a website, paschoolperformance.org, to showcase the new scores -- but school reporting problems caused officials to withhold results for 626 schools, or about one-fifth of Pennsylvania's 3,000 public schools.
The partial results made it difficult to make any statewide findings about how schools were measuring up. The department also limited temporarily several of the website's functions, including a tool to compare up to four schools side by side and downloadable files to access complete data sets.
Acting Secretary of Education Carolyn Dumaresq said in October that she considered a 70-point score to be "the mark of moving toward success," and that a majority of the schools that had submitted accurate data initially had reached that benchmark.
"The secretary has full confidence in the system itself, has confidence in the way that it was set up and how it flags the scores and what the scores represent," state Department of Education spokesman Tim Eller said Tuesday.
The new website features a variety of school-level data in one place online for the first time, from standardized test scores and Advanced Placement exam offerings to student demographics and attendance rates. The School Performance Profiles include all types of public schools, including charter schools, cyber charter schools and career and technical centers.
The profiles take into account scores from the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment tests administered to students in third through eighth grades and results of the Keystone Exams, which students must pass to graduate high school starting with the Class of 2017.
Starting in 2013-14, the building-level performance scores will account for 15 percent of principal and teacher evaluations.
Some local school officials and union representatives have expressed concerns that the public will place too much emphasis on performance scores that are still heavily weighted on standardized tests.
"Obviously you're not going to make everybody happy," Eller said. "There's going to be concerns on scores for some schools and districts overall, but the Secretary is confident and looks forward to this moving forward in the out-years toward making continuous improvements in student achievement."
Most of the reporting errors stemmed from students not filling in a test identifier bubble on the new Keystone Exams, though some schools said other data was inaccurate, such as the number of Advanced Placement courses their schools offered. The department gave schools until December to make corrections. The department anticipates avoiding most of those errors next year.
"We won't have these issues where the Keystone Exams weren't bubbled correctly -- that was a one-time issue for this year," Eller said.
The website is set to be updated with the full results mid- to late afternoon Wednesday, Eller said.
The partial results made it difficult to make any statewide findings about how schools were measuring up. The department also limited temporarily several of the website's functions, including a tool to compare up to four schools side by side and downloadable files to access complete data sets.
Acting Secretary of Education Carolyn Dumaresq said in October that she considered a 70-point score to be "the mark of moving toward success," and that a majority of the schools that had submitted accurate data initially had reached that benchmark.
"The secretary has full confidence in the system itself, has confidence in the way that it was set up and how it flags the scores and what the scores represent," state Department of Education spokesman Tim Eller said Tuesday.
The new website features a variety of school-level data in one place online for the first time, from standardized test scores and Advanced Placement exam offerings to student demographics and attendance rates. The School Performance Profiles include all types of public schools, including charter schools, cyber charter schools and career and technical centers.
The profiles take into account scores from the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment tests administered to students in third through eighth grades and results of the Keystone Exams, which students must pass to graduate high school starting with the Class of 2017.
Starting in 2013-14, the building-level performance scores will account for 15 percent of principal and teacher evaluations.
Some local school officials and union representatives have expressed concerns that the public will place too much emphasis on performance scores that are still heavily weighted on standardized tests.
"Obviously you're not going to make everybody happy," Eller said. "There's going to be concerns on scores for some schools and districts overall, but the Secretary is confident and looks forward to this moving forward in the out-years toward making continuous improvements in student achievement."
Most of the reporting errors stemmed from students not filling in a test identifier bubble on the new Keystone Exams, though some schools said other data was inaccurate, such as the number of Advanced Placement courses their schools offered. The department gave schools until December to make corrections. The department anticipates avoiding most of those errors next year.
"We won't have these issues where the Keystone Exams weren't bubbled correctly -- that was a one-time issue for this year," Eller said.
The website is set to be updated with the full results mid- to late afternoon Wednesday, Eller said.
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