Schools

State's New School Assessments to be Released Monday

The School Performance Profile, or SPP, replaces the federal Adequate Yearly Progress, or AYP, measurement, part of the No Child Left Behind Act.

Parkland School District's scores on Pennsylvania's new School Performance Profile will be issued Monday.

The SPP replaces the Adequate Yearly Progress, or AYP, measurement, mandated by the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

Marjorie Evans, Parkland's coordinator of data, assessment and federal programs, told the Parkland School Board Tuesday that schools' scores are based on student academic achievement and growth.

The information will be published on the Pennsylvania Department of Education website and will include three components: a school's academic score, with 100 being the top score; academic fast facts, which includes information such as the number of Title I schools, number of Advanced Placement courses offered, number of students in the gifted program, teachers' average number of years of education; and academic performance data in math, reading, science, writing.

Evans said the scores will be "open to interpretation" since there will be no terms or grades attached to the scores.

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Board President Jayne Bartlett questioned the meaning of the scores since school districts vary in the weight attached to numerical scores. 

Board member Roberta Marcus said the some of the evaluation criteria and categories seems nebulous, such as determining teacher and principal effectiveness.

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"The public needs to understand what this now means when they say 'effectiveness.' What are the components?"

Marcus noted that the district's AYP scores "fall off a cliff now."

"They're now going to use this as a base year. So isn't this a very critical year for the school district?," she said.

"I would think so," Evans said.


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