Nine local school districts all made Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) for the 2010 round of Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA) testing.
Danville, Milton and Shikelamy, however, each have at least one individual school that didn't achieve AYP, and Mount Carmel Junior-Senior High School and Columbia Montour Vocational-Technical School, which serves Southern Columbia students, made AYP but remain in "Making Progress: in School Improvement II" status after not making AYP in previous years.
The PSSA results are detailed within this year's Grading Our Schools report developed by Times-Shamrock Newspapers and The News-Item.
While the overall assessment is positive, a more detailed analysis shows that local districts vary greatly in whether they met or surpassed state averages in each of the 20 testing categories, which include a combination of reading, math, science and writing in grades 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 11. For example, the best performing local district, Danville, met or surpassed the average in 19 of 20 categories, and Southern Columbia and Warrior Run hit 15 of 20; Milton and North Schuylkill, meanwhile, met just 8 of 20, the lowest performance among local districts.
The state averages for each of the 20 tests range from a high of 84.9 for fourth-grade math to a low of 39.8 for 11th-grade science. The federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act, meanwhile, requires all students to reach 100 percent proficiency in math and reading by 2014 - a goal that many in education deem unrealistic.
(Although the 2010-11 PSSA tests have been taken, those results have yet to be released.)
Status of schools
Danville Area middle and high schools made AYP individually, but the district's Liberty Valley Elementary did not make AYP and is in warning status.
At Milton, Milton, Montandon and White Deer elementaries made AYP. So did Milton Area Middle School, but it remains in "Making Progress: in School Improvement I" status from not making AYP in 2009. Milton High School did not make AYP and is in "School Improvement I" status.
As noted above, Mount Carmel Area Junior-Senior High School and elementary school made AYP, but the high school remains in "Making Progress: in School Improvement I" status because of past performance.
Shikellamy, Oaklyn and Priestley elementaries made AYP in the Shikellamy district, as did Rice and Sunbury middle schools. But Grace S. Beck elementary did not make AYP and is in "warning" status while Shikellamy High School made AYP but is in "Making Progress in Corrective Action I" status based on past performance.
Susq-Cyber CS, the only charter school identified by the Pennsylvania Department of Education as having involvement in Columbia, Montour, Northumberland or Schuylkill counties, did not make AYP for the second year and is in "Corrective Action II Second Year" status.
Supers react
Line Mountain met state average in 14 of 20 categories compared to last year's 15. However, reading in grades five, seven, eight and 11 were all below state average.
"If you look at the test scores in the area, we're pretty consistent," said Superintendent Dave Campbell, crediting family, students, faculty, staff and a board "who has been dedicated to smaller class sizes."
Campbell said the numbers in local districts show administrations are working together.
"We share ideas and are doing a lot of the same things. It's about changing the culture, changing the climates and celebrating success," he said.
He admits Line Mountain High School students aren't where they need to be, but says grade 11 math scores are attributed to different teachers in the position.
Line Mountain also ranked 436th of 500 in the state for SATs, 387th for enrollment, 463th for average teacher's salaries ($46,292) and 264th for low income (at 24.8036 percent students qualifying for free/reduced lunch).
Campbell said Line Mountain encourages every student to take the SATS, which is why the average may be lower. However, he added, "I don't get too worked up about it. I'm not saying they're not important, but we're graded on the PSSAs."
Campbell also said the size of graduating classes are small, so four students leaving or dropping out makes a big difference. The state also considers students who are held back a dropout.
Despite the socioeconomic status of the district, which often has a direct connection to lower test scores, Campbell said education is still valued by the administration and, most importantly, by parents.
"They might not always agree with how we do it, but they want them (students) to come here and learn," he said.
Faculty and staff know parents are involved, and appreciate it, he said.
"You can have the best curriculum in the world and rewrite every year, but we were never meant to replace parents. In this community, we have never replaced the parents, and that's why we have success."
Southern met AYP in 15 of 20 testing categories in 2010, the same as the year before.
The district has worked hard, said SCA Superintendent Charles Reh.
"That's our goal. The administration, the faculty and the students and parents expect that," he said. "Any of the accomplishments are a combination of everyone working together. We have a good district."
In fourth grade, state averages were not met in math, reading or science. Reading in fifth and sixth grade were also below average. With the exception of third grade, the higher grades are the more proficient grades.
"The curriculum director and teachers are looking at those scores and areas where we need to improve," said Reh.
SCA ranked 130th in the state for SATs, 354th for enrollment, 354th for average teacher's salaries ($51,450) and 339th for low income (at 27.3735 percent).
With the SAT ranking in the state's top-quarter, he said students are learning what is being taught and following through.
"But there's always room for improvement," he said.
Reh echoed Campbell's statements about the district families valuing their education.
Mount Carmel Area is certainly making strides in improvement, making AYP for the second year in a row and beating the state average in 14 out of 20 subjects, up from eight a year ago.
"In Pennsylvania, there is a program called Getting Results, where it walks you through a process of analyzing your scores and system, finding your areas of weakness," said MCA high school principal Bernie Stellar. "In our case, the system worked perfectly."
Stellar said that there was even more improvement in the 2010-2011 scores, so much so that the district is considering joining the program again.
James Zack, superintendent for Shamokin Area, said that the district is proud for making AYP for the sixth year in a row, but the bigger goal is making improvements each year.
"We have to look how we are going to grow each year, and continue to improve," Zack said. "Next year, we have some very high goals to reach, and everyone in the district knows that it's going to be a challenge."
Also a challenge for Shamokin is to raise its reading scores. According to this year's data, the district only met or surpassed the state average in third grade.
"That is one of our ongoing issues, but we have some big changes coming this year that will help with that." Zack said.
Curriculum coordinator Ruby Michetti said that the district will be laying a foundation for future success.
"Our teachers have been working to adopt the Common Core Curriculum Mapping Project, from the Gates Foundation, to improve reading and critical thinking skills in all core subjects," Michetti said. "Staff also has the awareness of how the brain thinks about thinking and how students learn what they learn."
Some of the new steps are working, according to Michetti.
"We've looked at some of the scores from the 2011 tests and we see improvement in some areas and drops in others. We have our work cut out for us," she said.
100% unrealistic
The schools have until 2014 to reach 100 percent proficiency, a goal the superintendents don't think is possible.
"It doesn't make sense; 100 percent is just not realistic," said Campbell.
"The only way districts will reach that goal is if the state changes the definition of proficient," Reh said.
Campbell is critical of the state's evaluation and goals.
"I think students are tested to death," said Campbell.
When the students do it over and over again, they start to lose why it's important. By testing them so much, it takes away their gains, he said.
"I love being held accountable and love our teachers setting goals," said Campbell, but the tests are not reflecting the true story.
If a student is below basic at the beginning of a school year, but reaches basic levels by the end of the school year, that's progress, but the state isn't looking at that, Campbell said.
"I don't call that failure, I call that a success. I call that teaching," he said.
Additionally, with Gov. Tom Corbett's recent funding cuts to education, Reh said it makes their jobs harder.
"You have students who need extra time and work and tutoring. Not having that in your budget to use make it difficult to reach those goals," he said.
Shamokin Area administrators agreed with Reh's statement.
"We have one of the highest concentration of lower income students in the state, and statistics show that those student are at-risk students for learning, so we are behind the eight-ball already," Michetti said.
"Couple that with the fact that we have less money in funding to educate the students, so we have to try to do more to help them with less resources, It's an unequal playing field and more challenges are ahead."
"One hundred percent proficiency is fairly unrealistic, but we are going to try our best to do it," Stellar said.