All PSSA, All Day

The BCCT is devoting a large portion of today's edition, and this week, to examining the PSSA scores for the area.

ABCs The of your schools
PSSA: Changes coming to student evaluations
Revisions in the way special education students are evaluated could be in place by the 2009-10 school year, a state education department official said.
By JOAN HELLYER

The clock is ticking down to 2014.

But some area school districts could be in trouble if revisions are not made to the way special education scores are handled.

By 2014 the federal government wants all students to be learning on their respective grade level or higher.

Such performance is necessary to help students develop the academic skills they’ll need in adulthood, according to the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

The federal government looks for proof of student performance levels, in part, in the results of standardized tests. The state administers the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment tests each spring to provide that information.

In response to the federal mandate, most local school systems have used a variety of methods in recent years to develop student ability. Some tactics have worked. Others have not.

Oftentimes, that’s because all students learn on grade level, educators say. Special education students, in particular, learn on grade levels three or four years lower than do their peers, educa tors said.

“It’s illogical to expect [the special education] population to perform at grade level,” said Bensalem Superintendent James Lombardo.

But yet they are expected to demonstrate grade-level proficiency on the PSSA mathematics and reading tests. The proficiency rate is a combination of students who scored in either the proficient or advanced range on the tests.

The special education students’ scores count as a subgroup against a school’s overall performance grade if at least 40 spe cial needs kids in a respective building take the test.

Larger numbers of schools are likely to fail to meet Adequate Yearly Progress status, as required by NCLB, if special education scores continue to be included in the results the way they are now, Lombardo said.

“That’s because the [proficiency] threshold keeps rising. That makes it very, very difficult for the subgroups to make it,” Lombardo said.

Changes in the way special education students are evaluated could be in place by the 2009-2010 school year, said Shula Nedley, director of the state education department’s Bureau of Assessment and Accountability.

In the meantime, the state added 13 percentage points to PSSA performance rates involving special education scores this year to see if that would bring the results into the proficient range.

But even with that extra 13 points, about a dozen local schools either received a Warning or face some sort of School Improvement or Corrective Action measures because not enough of its special needs students performed at grade level this year, according to state results released last week.

That despite the fact that the overall student population in some of the schools achieved healthy or near perfect proficiency rates.

In fact, only two local high schools, Neshaminy and Bensalem, will get a thorough going over by the state because both schools are in Corrective Action II status for more than one year.

NESHAMINY’S CHALLENGE

In Neshaminy’s case, not enough economically disadvantaged students earned a proficient score on the PSSA reading test. In Bensalem, not enough special education students achieved proficiency on the PSSA math and reading tests.

The state is looking at each situation individually to see what’s being done to correct the situation internally before it takes action, said Gerald L. Zahorchak, Pennsylvania’s education department secretary.

“Oftentimes it’s an inadequacy of funding in those districts. In terms of resources and quality, we’re building on that capacity,” the secretary said in a Thursday conference call from Harrisburg.

Those resources will be in addition to the variety of methods area schools and districts already use to develop and monitor student progress, local administrators said.

The methods include periodic student testing with programs like 4Sight and Study Island. The testing materials are paid for through a variety of resources, including general funds and state and federal grants, administrators said.

School systems have realized a benefit in using these monitoring tools they said.

It helps identify students who need extra help and provides students the chance to become aware of test content and techniques, said Pennsbury spokeswoman Ann Langtry.

In Centennial, the intervention efforts have proved most beneficial to William Tennent High School’s special education population, said Jennifer Foight-Cressman, the district’s director of teaching and learning.

Over the last two years, Tennent special education students demonstrated a combined 28 percent leap in performance at proficient and advanced levels, she said.

Given the special education students success, Tennent was able, for the first time in six years to make AYP by reaching “Making Progress” status, Foight-Cressman said.