POTTSTOWN PA – Pottsgrove School District student scores on tests administered for the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA) – a statewide measure of how well, or poorly, districts educate their children – are nowhere near what the Board of School Directors says it hoped they would now be. On Tuesday (March 23, 2010), board members made it clear they were impatient for results.
For the third time in six months, in discussions of PSSA scores and the district’s grade on a federal yardstick of achievement called its Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP), directors were openly critical of what they said they think is the district’s slow pace in demonstrating Pottsgrove students are improving in reading, writing, and mathematics proficiency.
“At the end of the day, what do we have as a measurable result? Something we can hang our hat on and say, ‘yep, it was worth all that investment’” in educational and staff development programs, board Treasurer Fred Remelius asked. “Right now,” he answered himself, “not enough.”
“We’re starting to see signs of growth in assessment,” district Superintendent Dr. Bradley Landis later replied. “I’m thinking we’ve already hit bottom.”
Latest concerns over Pottsgrove students’ scholarly standings, relative to adjacent districts and statewide averages, come just as the Pottsgrove Middle School faculty is making what Principal Dr. William Zeigler reports is a concerted effort to prepare pupils there for another series of state tests next month. PSSA preparations were scheduled to top the agenda of a faculty meeting held Wednesday (March 24), Ziegler said.
The most recent PSSA scores available from the state Department of Education, for the 2008-2009 school year, indicate that of all students tested 12.0 percent fell below basic proficiency in math, and 12.7 percent fell below basic proficiency in reading. Another 15.0 percent were judged to be basically proficient in math, and 15.8 percent basically proficient in reading.
Overall, then, by state measurements slightly less than a third of all Pottsgrove’s tested students knew just enough, or didn’t know enough at all, to pass PSSA standards.
On the other hand, 43.5 percent of Pottsgrove’s tested students were proficient in advanced math, and 31.3 percent were proficient in advanced reading.
PSSA scores are “a political and public display of achievement,” Landis acknowledged, but added they were not the only standards of measurement. In others, he contended, including internal controls put in place by the district itself since 2007, students seem to be doing better, and in some cases significantly so.
“Looking at these measurements of student achievement, we’re not doing so well,” board member April Kontostathis observed, referring to the PSSA. “And I’m not sure why it’s taking us three years to get up to speed,” director Robert Lindgren added.
Although Tuesday’s comments on student progress came in light of 2010-2011 budget requests by Assistant Superintendent Shellie Feola for curriculum and professional development expenses, they actually represent the third time during the current school year that directors have voiced concerns over where PSSA and AYP scores were headed. They also were subjects of lengthy discussions on Sept. 8 and 22, 2009.
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Your students’ achievements are only as good as the effort the student and the immediate educators (teachers; parents ) put into it. We need to identify weakness and deficiency early on and place those in need of remedial attention into small classes where attention spans can be focused.
We also need to face that not all minds are equal and a spread of achievement can be expected in any population of students. Focus on basic skills and foundations, then an incremental orderly build to higher goals. Too often students are thrust into rigid programs where they are ill-suited and ill-prepared for success.
Critical analysis and evaluation, as well as solid placement decisions on the part of faculty and parents, will assure an individual’s success. If a student is unwilling to work one can expect poor and mediocre results in even the best of facilities, where even good teachers and administrators cannot always reach them.
Reality teaching is important. We need to have quality guidance counseling that really can assist both student and parent in deciding educational paths that make sense for a students abilities.
Perhaps administrators need to regularly meet with school boards and bring forth teacher evaluations that are indeed evaluative of the teachers’ abilities to educate, motivate, and properly classify and channel students they teach.
Remember, too, PSSA scores can beat even good students who are having a bad day.