Plum High School Failed to Meet PSSA Math Targets

has not met state goals on the math portion of the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment test.

The school administration team presented preliminary PSSA scores and observations at the school board's education committee meeting on Monday night. The high school met adequate yearly progress—AYP—in the reading, writing and science portions of the test; the elementary and middle schools met targets in all categories.

High school principal Ryan Kociela said administration and staff at the school are very disappointed, but they are working on a plan of action to improve next year's test scores .

This year's state target was to have at least 72 percent of district students proficient in reading and at least 67 percent proficient in math—the goals are 9 and 10 percent higher than last year's, respectively.

The targets are set to jump to 81 percent in reading and 78 percent in math next year.

At the high school this year, 76 percent of students were proficient in reading and 61 percent were proficient in math.

Kociela said the school was 18 students away from meeting the state targets this year—five students missed the target by one point, eight missed it by two points and nine missed it by three points.

He said the administration and staff at the school are looking into improvement strategies.

The plan of action includes looking at achievement data and benchmark assessments to determine where student needs are, relying on classroom diagnostic testing, increasing remediation and tutoring, hiring a math consultant for instructional strategies, increasing the number of teacher evaluations, putting the test scores on student transcripts for student accountability, creating incentives for students who meet goals and implementing "February Focus"—a period of time in which students review PSSA content during the month leading up to the test.

Kociela said the plan might look ambiguous now, but the administration and staff still need to gather more information before specifics are set in place.

School board member Sal Colella, chairman of the education committee, said officials need a bold plan of action to ensure the district won't fail in future years. He said more resources will have to be allocated toward the math program at the high school.

"There's a lot of work to do here," he said. "It's something the board has to look at very seriously this year. We just can't sit by and say it will pass.

"If we keep doing what we're doing, we're going to get what we've got. That's just not acceptable to me."

School board member Andy Drake said officials are going to look at decreasing the number of class periods and increasing class time. He said at the rate the district is going, it will be years before 98 or even 100 percent of students are proficient in reading and math.

Drake said the district needs to step it up and implement its own goals and targets because the state standards are too low.

School board member Kevin Dowdell said student accountability would make a huge difference because a lot of students don't realize the importance of the test.

Kociela agreed. He said a survey of Plum High School students showed overwhelming evidence that students would care about the test more if scores were posted on their transcripts.

Superintendent Lillian Naccarati said the district has earned a great reputation, and the administration is going to make changes very quickly. She said she is confident officials will have a set plan of action to implement by the end of the first nine-week period of the school year.