82 Percent of Schools Here Meet Standards

By PAULA HOLZMAN

PAULA HOLZMAN

Roughly 82 percent of Lancaster County schools met state academic standards for the 2004-05 school year, according to data released Tuesday.

Reaching standards became more difficult this year under provisions of the federal No Child Left Behind legislation, which mandates all students score as proficient on state standardized tests by 2014.

To meet standards, the percentage of students scoring advanced or proficient on the math portion of the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment rose from 35 percent of students to 45 percent; the reading cutoff rose from 45 percent advanced or proficient to 54 percent.

The standards will remain the same for the 2006-07 school year and rise again in the 2008-09 school year.

To meet standards, all schools also must have a 95 percent participation rate in the PSSAs, high schools must have an 80 percent graduation rate and middle and elementary schools must have a 90 percent attendance rate.

The 2004-05 school year marked the first time the PSSA scores from third-graders counted toward meeting standards. Fifth-, eighth- and 11th-graders also take the reading and math portions of the test.

Roughly 81 percent of schools statewide met standards.

All of the schools in Cocalico, Conestoga Valley, Eastern Lancaster County, Manheim Central, Manheim Township, Pequea Valley and Solanco school districts reached the benchmarks.

But passing scores does not mean a school can let down on its vigilance.

Were analyzing scores by building, getting the information back to teachers, Cocalico superintendent William Worley said.

Were going to continue to take a look at instruction.

Most of the schools failing to meet standards did so because of the scores of one of 11 federally mandated economic, academic, linguistic and racial subgroups.

If a group has more than 40 students in an individual school, the score counts toward that school meeting standards.

Donegal, Elizabethtown, Ephrata and Manor middle schools and Hempfield, Warwick and Columbia high schools missed standards because of the scores posted by special education students.

Theyre good tests but theyre tough tests, Penn Manor superintendent Donald Stewart said.

Expecting special education students to meet the same standards as their grade-levcl peers is somewhat paradoxical because one of the ways a student is identified for placement in the special education program is being two years behind grade level, he said.

But thats not the real story of the scores, Stewart said nor do the scores tell the whole story.

I still think if you go down to the local grocery store, constituents parents and non-parents

measure how a district is doing by 100 different ways. PSSAs (are) part of that, but not the sum total of how they evaluate local schools, he said.

Saundra Hoover, superintendent of Eastern Lancaster County School District, agreed.

Were certainly going to continue to pay a lot of attention to the state assessments, and we also continue to believe there are many other things that go into a good education besides the state assessments, she said. Were always thrilled to have that level of achievement, but we also want to keep it in perspective.

Schools that miss standards face an increasingly stringent series of penalties, beginning with a warning and ending with a state takeover.

Our plan is to make sure were really staying far above that bar so were never going to be in this panic stage, Warwick superintendent Stephen Iovino said.

The districts schools hold monthly meetings with teachers to discuss students progress and use scores to tailor instruction, he said.

Eleven schools missed standards for the first time, giving them a warning but no additional penalties.

Columbia Junior/Senior High School missed standards for the second year in a row, which means the school will have to offer school choice and create a school improvement plan.

Buehrle School, Washington, Fulton, King and Ross elementary schools, McCaskey and McCaskey East high schools and Wheatland Middle in School District of Lancaster missed standards for the third year in a row, meaning the schools have to create a school improvement plan and offer school choice and tutoring.

Two SDL schools

Hand and Reynolds middle schools

failed to meet standards for the fourth year in a row, placing them within a year of a possible state takeover.