The Herald, Sharon, Pa.

Local News

September 30, 2009

UPDATE: Five local schools miss state benchmarks

By Courtney L. Anderson

MERCER COUNTY — Every public school district in Mercer County this year met state academic performance targets, but four local high schools and a charter school missed the mark, state reports say.

Greenville, Grove City, Sharon and Sharpsville high schools and Keystone Education Center did not meet Pennsylvania’s “Adequate Yearly Progress” requirements in 2009, according to data recently released by the Education Department.

The state measures Adequate Yearly Progress, commonly referred to as “AYP,” by student scores on the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment tests which are administered to certain grade levels each spring. School districts are also judged by student attendance, graduation rates and participation in the tests.

Sharpsville High School did not have enough students hit math targets. The proficiency rate of 43.6 percent was down 9.3 percent from 2008. The school also showed the subgroup of white students missed the threshold.

Subgroup performances were the issue for Greenville, Grove City and Sharon high schools.

At Greenville and Sharon, special education students missed the mark on reading test scores. Sharon also took a hit because only 89 percent of special education students took the test and the state requires 95 percent do so.

Economically disadvantaged students at Grove City High School missed targets in math and reading after making the grade last year.

Keystone Charter School in West Salem Township did not meet 2009 AYP as not enough students scored proficient in reading and math. At Keystone, 15.3 percent of students met reading benchmarks, down nearly 15 percent from last year, and 16.7 percent of students scored high enough in math, a decrease of about 3 percent from last year.

Subgroups of economically disadvantaged and white students at the charter school also missed the targets, showing no improvement from 2008, when the school made AYP.

Schools that miss even one of the 41 targets, including subgroups like special education students or minorities not scoring high enough, are marked as not making AYP. Those that have more students score proficient than in the prior year or show improvement based on projections or other data can also be marked as meeting AYP.

A number of schools that were listed as not making AYP in 2008, mainly due to subgroup performances, showed improvement this year. Those that made in 2009 after missing the mark last year include: Jamestown High School, Farrell elementary and high schools, East Elementary in Greenville, Hermitage elementary and middle schools, Lakeview Middle School and Reynolds High School.

The 2009 state targets were 63 percent of students scoring proficient or above in reading and 56 percent passing math benchmarks. The thresholds remain the same for 2010 tests and will go up to 72 percent in reading and 67 percent in math in 2011.

More information about district and school performance can be found at http://paayp.emetric.net.

Statewide, students for the first time registered improved math and reading scores in all grade levels that take the state’s standardized tests, education officials said.

Under the federal No Child Left Behind act, all students must be proficient in math and reading by 2014.

In 2009, 93.6 percent of all Pennsylvania districts and 73.5 percent of all schools were designated as making AYP. In 2008 69 percent of all public schools made AYP and in 2007 that figure was 74 percent.

The state Education Department said the latest results showed nearly three out of four students are currently at their appropriate grade level in reading and math.



The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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