PhillyBurbs.com: School officials sound off on their PSSA results
Bill Ferrara is quoted towards the bottom of the article.
School officials sound off on their PSSA results
By: COURIER TIMES STAFF
Bucks County Courier Times
Bensalem
There's reason to celebrate this year in the Bensalem School District, with Adequate Yearly Progress achieved at four district schools that failed to meet the federal threshold in 2009.
Only Bensalem High School failed to make AYP in 2010.
The high school, Robert K. Shafer and Cecelia Snyder middle schools, and Samuel K. Faust and Benjamin Rush elementary schools didn't meet AYP in 2009.
"But this year, all our elementary schools and middle schools made AYP, and that is a significant accomplishment," Superintendent William Gretzula noted. "We're very excited by our results."
He attributed the district's success to intense efforts by teachers and administrative staff.
"We have worked hard to look at multiple assessment data and we're also focusing on professional learning communities - a process by which teachers come together to discuss authentic student work for a more consistent implementation of best practices in the classroom," Gretzula said.
Gretzula said that "the issues of Bensalem High School are not germane (only) to Bensalem. Of the 15 high schools in Bucks County, only three of them made AYP in 2009. We know that the high school is moving in the right direction, but the issue is that the proficiency threshold continues to rise."
Superintendent Broadus Davis said the Bristol Borough School District continues to make progress each and every year on its PSSA scores.
Middle school students, grades 6 to 8, have met their AYP targets every year since the 2002-03 school year, he noted.
At the elementary/middle school level, math and reading continue to improve each year. However, he said, improvement is needed at the high school level, particularly 11th grade.
"Although results show marked improvement, we believe mathematics overall need our attention to ensure the math program reflects research-based best practic es. Since the reading improvement committee implemented two years ago was successful, we plan to expand this idea and create a mathematics improvement committee," he said.
Davis said the committee will focus on reviewing instructional practices, studying the mathematic curriculum and making recommendations to strengthen the program.
"I personally feel that too much time is devoted to preparing for this assessment test, which takes away from instructional time our teachers need to cover for their specific area of specialization. Reaching 100 percent on the PSSA tests from my view is unrealistic," Davis said.
For the first time, all schools in the district met AYP in the same year, district spokeswoman Eileen Kelliher said.
"Some of the schools consistently make it, and all have, at one time or another, but this was the first time they all made it at the same time," she said. "We're very proud."
Kelliher attributes the rising scores in the district to several factors.
"We've had a tremendous technology renaissance," she said. "All our students and teachers now have access to computers and the best educational software.
"We've upgraded our instructional materials, instituted leadership courses for our faculty and improved communication between the administration and teachers," she added.
Many educators in the district give much of the credit for the improved scores during the last few years to recently retired Superintendent Ellen Budman and say they look forward to the success continuing under the new top administrator, Samuel Lee.
Most Bucks County Montessori Charter School students showed improvement on the PSSA tests, principal Brian Long said.
Students in the sixth grade demonstrated the most growth, increasing their class percentage in both math and reading by about 18 points from the 2009 tests.
"They are the highest scoring group and our oldest scoring group. That's our goal, by the time the child leaves here we have reached the highest potential for the child," Long said.
The school, chartered by the Pennsbury School District, is implementing various technology initiatives in 2010-11 to further increase student achievement on the test and in the classroom.
"We want the pattern to continue with the highest grade having the strongest performance," Long said. "It's something that makes us so very proud."
The comprehensive technical high school in Bristol Township again failed to meet AYP. Bucks County Technical High School has 1,350 students in grades 9-12 drawn from the Bristol, Bristol Township, Bensalem, Morrisville, Pennsbury and Neshaminy school districts.
Administrative Director Leon Poeske said math scores went up about 3 percent, but reading scores fell about 4 percent. The scores put the school in School Improvement 2 status, he said.
"Overall, we're disappointed in how we did," Poeske said. "Our teachers felt the kids would do better, and our administrators, as well, felt there would be an improvement, but unfortunately that wasn't the case. We need to refocus and make sure the kids are being instructed more on the things the state is testing on."
One factor in the low scores is that 32 percent of tech students and 30 percent of the 11th-graders taking the test are special education students, said Poeske.
While the PSSA scores in mathematics and reading are disappointing, he said test scores at the school in technical fields are just the opposite.
"I think it's important for everyone to know that when our kids do these occupational tests, 82 percent are proficient or advanced," said Poeske. "When you assess our students on their technical skills, our scores are among the highest in the state."
Assistant Superintendent Jennifer E. Foight-Cressman is pleased that the Centennial School District has made AYP for the fifth year in a row.
All six of the elementary schools and all three middle schools made AYP.
William Tennent High School would have made AYP, but it was identified by the state for "corrective action" in 2009. Because the high school met all 17 AYP targets in 2010, it has advanced to "Making Progress - Corrective Action II - Year 2" status, which puts it on track toward AYP in the future, said Foight-Cressman.
High school students receiving special education services and economically disadvantaged students made "significant improvements," she added.
"As you can imagine, we are absolutely delighted by the hard work and tremendous effort on the part of our students, teachers and administrators and are grateful for the continued support of our school board directors. While meeting AYP is only one of many important goals in educating whole human beings, we continue to strive for improvement in this area," she said in an e-mail to the newspaper.
She attributes improved performance to numerous district-wide practices, including a new elementary literacy program; individual education plans for students who haven't met proficiency requirements; and requiring PSSA proficiency as a graduation requirement.
The alternative charter school, chartered by the Pennsbury School District, is in Corrective Action I because not enough students demonstrated that they're learning at grade level on the PSSA reading test.
"We were expecting (the scores) to be better," said CSL Executive Director Thomas Reiley.
The school was created for students who were at risk of dropping out.
"We're often the last chance of their getting a good education," he said.
Despite the less than positive results on the reading test, staff members at the school in Falls aren't giving up, Reiley said.
They're using paraprofessionals as co-teachers to reduce the teacher ratio from 15:1 to 7.5:1 to give students more individualized attention, he said. They're also working on ways to improve the school's language arts program.
"The students are improving, however, they are not improving as quickly (as needed)," he said.
Reiley points to the school's 29 graduates in the class of 2009 as proof that CSL is making an impact on the students. About 85 percent of the graduates have moved on to higher education this school year, he said.
All schools in the Council Rock District met AYP this year.
Last year, Council Rock High Schools North and South were placed on "Warning" status based on scores by students in special education. This year, their scores met AYP, according to Superintendent Mark Klein.
"We were pleased to see that all the subgroups also met the AYP standard," Klein said. "Our kids showed greater gains this year, and I'm always pleased to see that."
While the district will never show 100 percent proficiency and advanced scores for all of its students, Klein said the schools will continue pushing the curriculum.
"I'd like to see every kid score proficient or advanced," Klein said. "We're working to get closer to it."
For the fifth consecutive year, Morrisville made AYP, district officials said.
The district is in its second year of a two-year commitment to differentiated instruction. The aim of that program is to provide instruction to meet the needs of all students, said William Ferrara, the high school principal.
"Teachers are conducting quarterly pre/post tests to monitor student progress and drive instruction," he said. "The pre-test results enable teachers to provide students with interventions to assist them in understanding the material. This process is modeled after the Pennsylvania Department of Education approved 'Response to Instruction and Intervention.' "
Ferrara said students will have at least one conference a month with every teacher. The purpose of the conference is to enable the teacher and student to identify ways the teacher can assist the student in overcoming any barriers to success.
He added that students also have the option to stay after school for additional tutoring Monday through Thursday.
Superintendent Louis Muenker said he is "pleased with the results" as the Neshaminy School District made AYP for the second straight year.
"We saw our subgroups - including our special education students - increase (their scores) as did our economically disadvantaged students," he added.
While the subgroups did well overall, Muenker said that performance at the high school level needs to improve.
"We are still having challenges there," he said. "It is a constant quest of ours to continue to improve throughout the K-12 program."
He credits the district's new reading initiatives for helping maintain reading scores in the elementary schools.
"We have math coaches throughout the district as well," Muenker said, "and they are instrumental in supporting teachers and getting the kids on track. We will continue to track the data coming in and make plans on how we can improve even more."
All 15 schools in the Pennsbury School District met AYP this year, which is cause for celebration, school officials said.
"It is great news that we are making these markers," said Kevin J. McHugh, Pennsbury's assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction K-12. "But the most important aspect is the demonstrated improvement in learning by all students because of our emphasis on rigorous curriculum."
In recent years, the district has implemented reading classes for secondary-level students who haven't demonstrated that they're learning at grade level. It's implementing a similar mathematics course this school year, officials said.
"On the whole, (the 2010) PSSA results show increased achievement by Pennsbury students on the standardized reading and math tests," said district CEO Paul B. Long.
"I am delighted with the unprecedented results. This year is the first time that Pennsbury has achieved AYP in all schools and all subgroups," he added. "This success reflects concerted efforts by students, teachers and administrators across all of our schools."
The co-teaching model is responsible for School Lane Charter School's success with PSSA testing, the principal said.
Under the co-teaching model, a second teacher is in the classroom during part of the day to provide individualized instruction while the other teacher continues group instruction.
"School Lane continues to develop sound instructional strategies that support each student as an individual learner," said principal Karen Schade. "Our co-teaching model continues to produce positive results."
In an effort to improve next year, the charter school said it will institute a new series of Web-based math and reading assessments, which will allow teachers to differentiate instruction.
