Test change hurts school ratings

By Amanda Spadaro Eagle Staff Writer

November 12, 2016 Last Updated: November 12, 2016 08:53 AM Local News

Elementaries affected most

A statewide rating system for individual school buildings shows that elementary schools in Butler County have been dragged down by a testing change made two years ago.

Some schools in all seven districts in the county got passing grades of at least 70 percent.

However, a change in the PSSA exams appears to have hit elementary schools particularly hard.

Those same districts also show elementary schools with failing scores between 65 percent and 70 percent.

These scores are tied to the School Performance Profile, or SPP, system, a rating of each school building in a district on a 100-point scale.

The scores, recently released by the state Department of Education, reflect data based on academic achievement, including how students performed on the PSSA or Keystone exams, academic growth from previous years and other information such as attendance, promotion rates and graduation rates.

The score also includes the percent of seniors who have taken or plan to take the PSAT.

Across the county, elementary school scores have been lower, and this is attributed to the fact that the PSSA exams changed two years ago to align with Pennsylvania Core standards. Since that change, elementary schools have scored lower in general on the exams, which impacts the SPP

Butler School District Superintendent Dale Lumley said the change has affected elementary schools across the state.

“Any time you make a significant change for the students, there’s going to be an impact on achievement,” Lumley said.

“The changing of the test, which is more challenging and more demanding, is having an effect on all schools across the state, including ours.”

In the Butler School District, elementary school scores ranged from 65.5 at Northwest Elementary School to 76.3 at Connoquenessing.

A 70 is a passing score.

Because of the district’s consolidation before the 2015-16 school year, this is the first score that reflects the new configuration.

“It’s hard to compare previous scores to the new scores ... All of these scores become new scores for us with the new buildings,” Lumley said. “We obviously always want to see improvement, and we have plenty of room for improvement.”

Despite lower scores at the elementary level, the Seneca Valley School District showed some higher scores, ranging from 68.6 at Rowan Elementary to 81.8 at Haine Elementary.

Typically, the elementary schools are what prevent some districts from passing at every building, which is the case for the Karns City, Moniteau and South Butler districts.

Moniteau’s Junior-Senior High School scored 77.8, but Dassa McKinney Elementary School scored 65.8. The South Butler Intermediate Elementary, which houses fourth and fifth grades, scored 65.6, but the district’s three other buildings received scores of more than 70.

The Karns City High School scored 82.7, but both elementary schools scored in the 60s.

Karns City Superintendent Eric Ritzert said there were no elementary scores last year due to the testing changes.

“I believe that these changes have had an effect on the elementary SPP scores,” Ritzert said.

“It is my understanding that the Pennsylvania Department of Education is possibly looking at some changes to its current rating system that will integrate some holistic measurements into the SPP scores in the future. This would be welcomed because it may include things other than just standardized test scores in the composite score.”

A more holistic score could include measures of percent economically disadvantaged students, student resilience or emotional intelligence.

The state education department is working with school administrators, teachers, parents, higher education officials and policymakers to discuss other measures that should be involved in the SPP system, according to press secretary Nicole Reigelman.

“We know we have to have a better, more holistic measure of how our schools and our students are doing. It’s pretty widely agreed upon across the state,” she said.

Reigelman did not know when those new measures would be implemented.

Reigelman also could not say what specific measures the department would look to include.

South Butler Superintendent David Zupsic said scores at the elementary level have definitely been affected by the change in the PSSA exams, but he said a school’s learning environment may be a measure that could be added.

“It’s difficult to include those kind of metrics because of the qualitative nature,” Zupsic said.

Richard Cavett, assistant superintendent, said it is important to remind children that their value is more than just a test score — something a new SPP system could reinforce.

The Mars School District was the only district in the county to have every school building achieve a passing score of 70 or higher.

The Butler School District had the highest score in the county, 90 for the senior high school. Despite having the highest overall score, the district has the lowest score for PSAT participation, with only 36.31 percent of seniors having taken or planning to take that test.

PSAT participation, which counts for 2.5 percent of the final score, ranges from Butler’s low up to 100 percent participation in Slippery Rock and Mars districts.

The full score calculations are available at www.paschoolperformance.org.

These are the scores for each school, grouped by district:

Butler

Senior High: 90.0

Intermediate High: 61.2

Middle: 78.2

Center Township Elementary: 66.3

Connoquenessing Elementary: 76.3

Emily Brittain Elementary: 73.9

McQuistion Elementary: 75.0

Northwest Elementary: 65.5

Summit Elementary: 69.6