One Centre County school district is celebrating another year of widespread achievement while another must work toward improvement at its high school, after the release Friday of the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment exam results.

“We’re pretty excited,” said Brian Griffith, superintendent of the Penns Valley Area School District, where all four schools met adequate yearly progress, the state standard for achievement.

Students in grades three through eight and 11 took this year’s exams in the spring.

Three of five county districts overall met AYP — Bald Eagle Area, Penns Valley Area and State College Area.

The Bellefonte Area and Philipsburg-Osceola Area districts are in warning status, meaning they did not meet AYP measures for the first time.

In total, eight individual schools from four of the five districts did not meet state standards which, for 2012, were 78 percent of students performing at grade level or higher in math, and 81 percent in reading.

Next year, the AYP targets will jump to 89 percent proficiency for math, and 91 percent for reading. Both targets will reach 100 percent in 2014, as outlined in the federal No Child Left Behind law. The law aims to measure school improvement and student achievement.

Four of five P-O schools did not meet AYP this year, with the junior high the only school to do so. North Lincoln Hill, Osceola Mills and Philipsburg elementaries are in warning status.

P-O Senior High School is in one of the AYP red areas, labeled “school improvement I.” That means the school did not meet AYP measures for two years in a row in the same subject. For high school students, that was math.

The next steps are that school officials must develop an improvement plan, and the school will receive assistance to help with that improvement.

District officials couldn’t be reached for comment Friday.

Overall, 70 percent of the district’s students scored proficient or better in math, and 66 percent in reading.

Penns Valley Area’s four schools all met AYP this year, and have done so since 2009.

It was the only district to achieve that performance in Centre County this year, a repeat performance of last year. Overall, 89 percent of students scored proficient or above in math, and 84 percent in reading.

“I think probably some of the reasons for our greatest success is what’s going on in the classrooms everyday” as well as how the district has encouraged teachers and provided professional development, said Griffith. “We’ve had teachers interact with teachers.”

That means that elementary teachers visit high school classrooms and vice versa.
“I’m very proud of the students and how well they did,” Griffith said. “I’m very proud of the teachers.”

In the coming year, Griffith said he wants to look at math and reading scores at all grade levels, especially in the special education population. He said the district will spend extra time on subjects when needed, and use strategies to help the students improve.

Four of the Bald Eagle Area schools met AYP, while Howard Elementary received warning status. Students overall met the 78 percent math target, but did not meet AYP due to male and economically disadvantaged students scoring below. In reading, 65 percent of students scored proficient or better.

In the district as a whole, 80 percent of students achieved proficiency or better, and 74 percent did so in reading.

In Bellefonte, half the district’s schools did not meet AYP — the high school, middle school, and Bellefonte Elementary — placing them in warning status.

Benner, Marion-Walker and Pleasant Gap elementaries met AYP.

In the district overall, 78 percent of students scored proficient or better in math, and 76 percent in reading.

Last year, Superintendent Cheryl Potteiger said all schools would create improvement plans, whether the state required it or not.

She could not be reached for comment Friday.

Districts received results before the public release of all PSSA data Friday morning, and State College Area officials presented that district’s figures at a school board meeting earlier this month.

The district overall met AYP, but the high school, Mount Nittany Middle School and Easterly Parkway Elementary did not meet AYP and are in warning status.

The high school and middle school missed the target in math in the subgroup of students with disabilities. Easterly Parkway Elementary missed the reading target for economically disadvantaged students.
At the time, Superintendent Bob O’Donnell said the district is “very pleased” with students’ progress and will focus on helping each student grow to meet the coming target increases.

The three charter schools in Centre County taking the PSSA exams met AYP this year, and all three did so last year. Those schools are Centre Learning Community, Nittany Valley and Young Scholars of Central Pennsylvania.

More than 930,000 students completed the test statewide, according to the Department of Education. According to data released Friday morning by Secretary Ron Tomalis, about 76 percent of students scored proficient or better in math, about 72 percent in reading, about 73 percent in writing, and about 61 percent in science.

Not all grades take the writing and science portions.

Officials claim the grades were lower this year due to a statewide investigation of cheating, in which test proctors advised students to change wrong answers.

“We hit the reset button for student achievement on the PSSA,” Tomalis said. “It’s important to recognize that the reason why we’ve spent so much time and effort ... is that this really doesn’t cheat the adult in the public education system, but it really cheats the students.”

Jessica VanderKolk can be reached at 235-3910. Follow her on Twitter @jVanReporter