Nov 14, 2003 By Steve Ostrosky 5 min read

As report cards have come out for the first nine-week period in most area schools, elementary school officials throughout the 10-county southwestern Pennsylvania region were graded Thursday on how proficient their students are in math and reading. The results were a mixed bag for Fayette and Greene counties, as some schools received an A-plus in one area, while two local schools received an F-minus for their math scores.

The Allegheny Conference on Community Development released its first ever “report card” based on the number of fifth-grade students who are considered proficient or above in the state’s standards for reading and mathematics.

According to the conference’s report, in 2000 members established a goal for the region that all 10-year-olds should be proficient in reading, writing and mathematics by 2010.

The Pennsylvania Economy League/Western Division prepared the report card at the request of the Allegheny Conference to annually measure the region’s progress by compiling and analyzing the 2003 Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA) data on the 356 public schools that educate fifth-graders in the region, which includes Fayette, Greene, Washington and Westmoreland counties.

“Citizens may be surprised to see that their schools are not doing as well as they thought,” said Murry Gerber, chairman of the conference’s Education Goal Committee. “In the majority of schools in the region, between 20 percent and 50 percent of the fifth-graders fail to meet state standards in either reading or mathematics. This kind of mediocre performance just isn’t good enough for our children.”

One grade was assigned based on performance of fifth-grade students on the PSSA reading test in 2001, 2002 and 2003, and another grade was given based on performance on the PSSA mathematics test for the same three years. Letter grades were based on the percentages of students who scored as “proficient” or “advanced” on the PSSA.

An A was given to schools where at least 80 percent of fifth-graders scored as proficient or advanced, a B was given for 70 to 79.9 percent, C for 60 to 69.9 percent, D for 50 to 59.9 percent, E for 40 to 49.9 percent and an F was given to schools where 39.9 percent or fewer of the fifth-graders scored as proficient or advanced.

“What should really make us angry is that most of our schools are getting worse rather than better,” Gerber said. “In more than half of the elementary schools in the region, the percentage of fifth-graders who are proficient in either math or reading or both actually decreased.”

To measure the trend in a school’s performance with each new group of fifth-graders, the report card gave schools a plus or minus along with a letter grade.

If a school improved between 2001 and 2003 at a rate that suggests it can meet the 100 percent goal by 2010, it received a plus. If the school’s performance decreased during that same timeframe by more than a minimum amount, it was given a minus.

For each school, along with a grade and possible modifier, the report lists the percentage of fifth-grade students who scored as proficient or higher on the 2003 PSSA tests and also includes the average change in percentage points on PSSA proficiency from 2001 to 2003.

Among those receiving an A-plus locally were Franklin and Wharton schools in the Uniontown Area School District for their reading scores, while Marclay School in the Uniontown Area School District, Central Elementary School in Frazier School District and R.W. Clark Elementary School in the Laurel Highlands School District got an A-plus for their math scores.

At the other end of the spectrum, Central Elementary School in the Brownsville Area School District and Perry Elementary School in the Central Greene School District were the two schools given an F-minus by the report for performance on the math portion of the PSSA.

While all schools were given grades, some schools were recognized for “significantly outperforming” other schools that have similar percentages of low-income students. Schools were noted if the percentage of fifth-graders who are proficient is at least 15 points higher than the median percentage for schools with similar low-income student populations.

Eight schools in Fayette County were cited for outperforming their peers in reading, and 11 schools were recognized for outperforming their peers in math.

In Albert Gallatin Area School District, A.L. Wilson and George J. Plava elementary schools were recognized for outperforming their peers in both math and reading. D. Ferd Swaney Elementary was noted for outperforming its peers in math.

In Brownsville Area, Cardale Elementary School was recognized for reading and math. Dunbar Borough Elementary School in Connellsville Area School District was recognized for reading, while Frazier School District’s Central Elementary and Perry Elementary schools were noted for outperforming their peers in math.

R.W. Clark Elementary School in the Laurel Highlands School District was recognized for reading and math, while George C. Marshall Elementary School was noted for its performance in math.

In Uniontown Area School District, both Lafayette and Wharton schools were noted as “significantly outperforming” peers in fifth-grade math and reading, while Marclay School was recognized for math and Franklin School was noted for reading.

The complete report can be found at the Allegheny Conference’s web site at www.accdpel.org/01_01.asp.