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Pa. Schools Lauded for Teacher Testing: The State Was Cited for Finding Ways to Make Education Work Better. Overall, the National Study Gave Pennsylvania a C

Posted on: Thursday, 5 January 2006, 12:00 CST

By Martha Woodall, The Philadelphia Inquirer

Jan. 5--A leading education publication gave Pennsylvania and New Jersey passing grades for school-improvement policies, in a report released yesterday.

Pennsylvania won praise for its academic standards in all grade levels and subjects, and New Jersey was lauded for having the nation's top high school graduation rate.

Both states were cited for their efforts to improve the quality of teaching. Pennsylvania was recognized for requiring new teachers to pass a battery of tests. New Jersey is among only 15 states to require and pay for the mentoring of new teachers.

But both Pennsylvania and New Jersey received poor marks for having wide gaps in school funding between affluent and poor districts.

The findings were included in Education Week's annual report examining states' education-improvement policies. Education Week, published by the Editorial Projects in Education Research Center, a nonprofit based in Bethesda, Md., is recognized as a leading publication for educators.

Government officials, parents and school administrators turn to the annual Quality Counts report to learn about how their state compares with others.

For the last decade, states have been developing academic standards and creating tests to measure how well students are meeting them. In its 10th report, Education Week concluded that most of the efforts had resulted in improving students' academic achievement.

"After a decade of tracking state policy efforts in education, our results are at once heartening and sobering," Virginia B. Edwards, editor of the report and Education Week, said yesterday.

Fourth- and eighth-grade math and reading scores on the National Assessment of Education Progress have improved across the country since 1996, especially in math. And low-income and minority students have showed above-average gains.

"But improvements still have not come far or fast enough," Edwards said.

The Pew Center on the States, a new unit of the Philadelphia-based Pew Charitable Trusts, provided support for the report, and the Educational Testing Service in Princeton analyzed the test scores. Although states have their own standardized tests, the National Assessment of Education Progress is taken by a sample of students in every state and allows researchers to track performance over time.

As part of the Education Week study, researchers created report cards for each state and Washington. They used a wide range of data to grade the states in four key areas: standards and accountability; efforts to improve teacher quality; funding equity; and school climate. Each state also received an overall score.

The highest overall grade, a B-plus, went to Louisiana. Pennsylvania received a C-plus; New Jersey received a B-minus overall.

"Policy-wise, they are about average," Melissa McCabe, a senior research associate with Education Week, said yesterday. "Though I think their achievement levels around NAEP are pretty high."

At the bottom of the scale were Montana (D) and Alaska and North Dakota (both at D-plus).

Pennsylvania ranked 15th in the country in proficiency on the 2005 test; New Jersey was fifth. Pennsylvania received a C-minus in funding equity, as did New Jersey.

Kathryn Forsyth, communications director at the New Jersey Department of Education, said that, although the state has a long-standing program to provide funds for poorer districts, property taxes still play an important role in funding formulas.

"I think that reliance caused us to get a lower score," she said.

Overall, she said, New Jersey fared well in the report. Its high school graduation rate of 84.1 percent in 2002 was far above the national average of 69.4 percent. The rate for Pennsylvania was 77.1. Although most of the data were drawn from the 2004-05 school year, the 2002 graduation rates were the most current available.

"Of course there is room for improvement," Forsyth said. "But, on the whole, it shows that we are doing pretty well."

Gov. Rendell said in a statement that the report highlighted important education gains made in Pennsylvania since 2002. He said the state had increased spending for prekindergarten through 12th grade by $1.2 billion since 2002-03.

"Our historic investments in public education are starting to pay off," he said. "We can, and must, do even better, but the Education Week report card reinforces what we know to be true: Smart investment combined with strong accountability is the key to success."

He said the state must continue with efforts to provide additional funds for poorer school districts to reduce the gap in per-pupil spending between wealthy and poorer districts.

Highlights of the Education Week Report

Pennsylvania New Jersey U.S.

Standards and accountability B- B+ B-

Improving teacher quality B B

C+

School climate C B-

C+

Resource equity C- C-

C

Overall grade C+ B- C+

SOURCE: Education Week's State Report Cards on School Reform Policies

ONLINE EXTRA

Examine a summary of your state's performance or download a copy of state reports at http://go.philly.com/standards (click on "Register now").

Contact staff writer Martha Woodall at 215-854-2789 or martha.woodall@phillynews.com

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Philadelphia Inquirer

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Source: The Philadelphia Inquirer

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