CLEARFIELD – The Clearfield school board heard the new school performance profile scores for 2012-13 for four of its five schools during a presentation by Bruce Nicolls, director of curriculum and coordinator of federal programs, at last night’s committee meetings.
The Pennsylvania School Performance Profile has replaced Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP). Pennsylvania was among the 41 other states granted the federal waiver to the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB).
Earlier this month, the state Department of Education (PDE) released its first School Performance Profile. Under the new evaluative system, a school is measured on a 100-point scale by indicators that define a high performing school, said Nicolls.
According to him, many data elements comprised the academic score and are categorized into five areas. The first three areas comprised 50 percent of the school academic performance score and included indicators of academic achievement and two, different indicators of closing the achievement gap.
Indicators of academic achievement included the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA) and Keystone Exam scores, standards-based competency assessments, grade three reading proficiency and SAT/ACT college ready benchmarks. Indicators of closing the achievement gap included all student scores and then another for just the historically under-performing students to define how well a school has progressed. However, indicators of closing the achievement gap will not be included in academic performance scores until 2013-14.
The next category, he said, comprised 40 percent of the school academic performance score. He said it’s comprised of indicators of academic growth/Pennsylvania Value-Added Assessment System (PVAAS). This, he said, measured the school’s impact on the academic progress of groups of students from year-to-year.
The final category, Nicolls said, comprised 10 percent of the school academic performance score. It included other academic indicators, such as graduation rate, promotion rate, attendance rate, etc. Additionally, he said schools may earn up to seven additional points, or “extra credit,” for advanced achievement based upon advanced performance on state and industry assessments, as well as for students earning a three or higher on an Advanced Placement exam.
Clearfield Area High School
The overall score for the Clearfield Area High School will not be released until data is corrected for end-of-course designations for students taking the Keystone Exams. The school’s academic performance profile will be available in January, said Nicolls.
However, he noted that the high school scored the maximum points possible for its dual enrollment program. He said students have graduated with college credits and by far exceeded the expectations at the state level.
Clearfield Area Middle School
The overall score for the Clearfield Area Middle School was 78.3 percent. Further, students scored 74.18 percent proficient in mathematics/Algebra I on the PSSA/Keystone Exams. However, students scored 69.63 percent proficient in reading/literature, 65.75 percent in writing and 58.33 percent in science.
So far as academic growth expectations in reading, students scored 100 percent, or the maximum score possible, said Nicolls. In other subjects, students scored growth expectations of 86 percent in science, 81 percent in mathematics/Algebra I and 75 percent in writing.
The school had 45.26 percent of students score advanced in mathematics/Algebra I, 38.01 percent in reading/literature, 17.78 percent in science and 5.50 in writing.
Bradford Township Elementary School
The overall score for the Bradford Township Elementary School was 83.9 percent. Students scored 87.50 percent proficient in science, 85.71 percent in mathematics and 75 percent in reading; they scored 78.13 percent proficient in grade three reading.
So far as academic growth expectations in reading, students scored 100 percent, or the maximum score possible, said Nicolls. In other subjects, students scored growth expectations of 74 percent in science and 72 percent in mathematics.
The school had 64.28 percent of students score advanced in mathematics, 41.67 percent in science and 26.79 in reading.
Clearfield Elementary School
The overall score for the Clearfield Elementary School was 76.4 percent. Students scored 85.58 percent in science, 83.81 percent in mathematics and 75.24 percent in reading; they scored 73.83 percent proficient in grade three reading.
So far as academic growth expectations, students scored 77 percent in both mathematics and reading. However, students scored growth expectations of 50 percent in science.
The school had 53.81 percent of students score advanced in mathematics, 30.77 percent in science and 25.24 percent in reading.
Centre Elementary School
The overall score for the Centre Elementary School was 66.9 percent. Students scored 76.09 percent proficient in mathematics and 66.67 percent in science on the PSSA/Keystone Exams. In reading, students scored 50 percent proficient overall but registered only 40 percent proficient in grade three.
Students scored academic growth expectations in reading and mathematics of 74 percent and 73 percent, respectively. Students scored growth expectations of 67 percent in science.
The school had 47.62 percent of students score advanced in science, 30.43 percent in mathematics and 15.22 percent in reading.
When asked about the score at Centre after the meeting, Nicolls wouldn’t definitively say it was due to the school’s population of economically disadvantaged students. In addition to needing to make gains at Centre, he identified secondary science as a problem area. He said each student is now getting seven periods of biology on a weekly basis at the high school.
He said the lower grade levels gained in mathematics. On the contrary, he said the secondary levels caught up in reading but not in mathematics. Overall, he said the district’s growth was pretty good and noted it was an important indicator of the effectiveness of the teaching in its classrooms.
For more information on Pennsylvania School Performance Profiles, please visit: http://paschoolperformance.org/.