Test scores show more area children left behind

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By Mark Guydish [email protected] Reporter
State reading and math test results released Wednesday offered bleak news for local schools.

Overall, five more schools missed minimum goals this year than did last year. Six districts saw the number of their schools that missed the mark increase, while only two districts managed to have more schools reach goals.
The state looks at the district overall as well as at each school, so a district can make or miss the goals regardless of how schools do. But the news wasn’t any better there. Three of 12 districts missed goals this year, two more than last year.
It’s all part of the federal No Child Left Behind law, which requires all public school students to score “proficient” or “advanced” on annual standardized reading and math tests by 2014. Districts must demonstrate “Adequate Yearly Progress” toward the 100 percent goal by reaching annual minimum percentages that steadily increase. In Pennsylvania, the 2007-08 goals were 63 percent proficient or better in reading and 56 percent in math.
Most schools actually meet those goals when you look at all the students. But to keep poor results among some students from being hidden by good results by the majority, the law also requires the minimum goals be met separately by “subgroups” of students who are statistically more likely to fail such tests: English language learners, special education, economically disadvantaged and minorities. Most local schools missed the goals in one or more of those subgroups.
The state also allows schools to meet Adequate Yearly Progress even if they don’t actually meet the minimum percentages in the two tests. While the details are complicated, broadly speaking, if a school or subgroup shows enough improvement from the previous year, they can meet AYP even if they are well below the 63 and 56 percent goals in proficiency.
Northwest Area High School, for example, missed the goals not simply because it had low percentages of special-education students scoring proficient or better in reading and math – 4 percent and 19 percent respectively, well below the goals – but because the percentages in both cases were lower than last year. Math results dropped by about 5 percentage points, while reading dropped a whopping 16 percentage points. Had they gone up that much, the state likely would have ruled that they met AYP even though they still would have been well below the 63 and 56 percent goals.
Superintendent Nancy Tkatch said the drop in special-education test results was the result of a change in how the district is teaching those students. Like most districts statewide, Northwest has been moving more special-education students into regular classrooms, thanks to a court ruling known as the Gaskin case, which mandated that more has to be done to have special-education students learn under the “least restrictive environment,” as required under federal law.
“We have integrated most of those students into the regular environment – which is a move we support and believe we should do – and there is a little bit of a transition,” Tkatch said.
She predicted scores will rise again as the district adapts to the change.
Sinking test results at Greater Nanticoke Area High School became a lightning rod of criticism from newly elected board member Tony Prushinski this year and was a key argument in the demotion of Principal Mary Ann Jarolen, which led to a bitter legal battle. This year, the school met test goals for the first time since 2003-04, earning a “making improvement” label from the state. If the school meets the goals next year, it would be back in the “Meeting AYP” category.
The high school saw double-digit gains in the percentage of students scoring proficient or better in reading and math. While the school didn’t meet the absolute goals in special education and economically disadvantaged subgroups, they improved enough in both to meet the goals through sufficient improvement.
For example, only 14.3 percent of special-education students scored proficient or better in reading, far below the 63 percent goal. But that was 7.5 percentage points better than last year, which the state deems a big enough improvement to make the grade.
The bad news at GNA: The elementary center and education center missed the goals for the second year in a row. Both missed for the same reason: Economically disadvantaged students missed the 63 percent goal in reading by a bit more than 10 percentage points.
Wyoming Valley West saw three of its nine schools that had previously made AYP miss goals this year: The Middle School and State and Main elementary schools. The high school missed the marks for the third year in a row.
Main and State missed because of reading test results of economically disadvantaged students. The Middle School missed the same goal in the same subgroup, but also missed the reading goal in test results from black students, where less than 46 percent scored proficient or above.
Valley West also missed AYP at the district level, where it has bounced in and out of compliance for years. It missed in 2002-03, made it in 2003-04, missed again in 2004-05, then made it the next two years. This year the district missed the mark, thanks to scores among economically disadvantaged students in all grades, and low results (14 percent proficient or better) for special-education students in grades nine-12 in reading and math.
But it was Wilkes-Barre Area School District where the results looked the bleakest. Already on the ropes last year when only two of nine schools met AYP, this year only one did. In fact, the only news may be that the school meeting the goals was Solomon Plains Elementary, which had missed them last year.
Kistler Elementary and Coughlin High School missed the goals after making them last year. Flood, Dodson and Heights-Murray elementaries, Solomon Plains Junior High, and Meyers and GAR high schools all missed for the second year in a row. Special-education scores were the culprit at Kistler, Dodson and Heights. Solomon Plains Junior High, GAR and Meyers all posted insufficient scores among blacks, while Flood and Meyers missed goals among Latinos and economically disadvantaged. Wilkes-Barre Area missed the goals on the district level as well
In Hazleton Area, the much-loved former Hazleton High School – known as “The Castle” and once slated for demolition – began its new life as the renovated Hazleton Elementary/Middle School, but it was a rocky start. The new school missed the state goals in almost every category. Perhaps with some irony, part of the problem may have been the fact that it is a new school and so it couldn’t meet goals simply by showing improvement.
The school had to meet the 63 and 56 percent goals in reading and math in all subgroups, but only the white student population did that. Special-education, economically disadvantaged, English language learner and Latino subgroups all missed the mark in reading and math.
Hazleton Area High School also missed in almost every subgroup, as well as in students overall. It has never made the goals, and is the only school in the area that can make that sad claim.
The good news for Hazleton Area is that Heights-Terrace and Drums elementary/middle schools made the goals after missing them last year, but that may be offset by Freeland and West Hazleton elementary/middle schools missing the goals after reaching them last year.
West Side Career and Technical Center, which got to celebrate for the first time last year by making the goals after years of having the worst test results in the area, narrowly missed the goals this year. Unlike the other two local career centers, West Side is a “comprehensive” school that teaches students all day rather than taking them only half a day for career training. That means that even though the students come from five districts, their test scores count at the Career Center, not in those districts.
While West Side has never actually met the percentage goals, it did improve enough last year to satisfy the state rules. This year reading tests improved by 2.1 percentage points to almost 41 percent scoring proficient or better, which the state decided was good enough, but math scores did not increase enough.
While Wyoming Area and Dallas had all their schools meet the goals, Wyoming Area Secondary Center didn’t make the grade last year. Dallas is the only local district that has consistently had all schools meet AYP six years in a row.
For detailed charts on local schools, visit www.times
leader.com

Mark Guydish, a Times Leader staff writer, may be reached at 829-7161