Nov 26, 2003 By Jenny Susa 5 min read

BELLE VERNON – A report card of the last two years shows that in most grades, 50 percent or more of the Belle Vernon Area School District’s students tested are meeting proficiency standards in math and reading, an administrator told the school board this week. Jeanine Gregory, federal programs coordinator and reading supervisor, gave a presentation to the board Monday, explaining why the accountability requirements of the federal No Child Left Behind Act are important and how well the district is meeting those expectations.

The law requires that all students nationwide meet federal proficiency standards in reading and math by 2014.

The act mandates performance indicators for each district. Pennsylvania school districts can show yearly progress through these indicators: scores on the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment tests, rates of participation in the assessment tests, 95 percent overall attendance in kindergarten through eighth grade and a four-year graduation rate in high school.

The assessment tests are given in fifth, eighth and 11th grade. In the 2004 school year, third grade also will be tested, and in the 2006 school year, tests will be given to fourth, sixth and seventh grades. In the 2008 school year, science will be added to the tests. All the students will be tested only if the school district has appropriate accommodations to conduct the tests.

The legislation requires 45 percent proficiency in reading on the tests in 2004, 54 percent in 2005, 63 percent in 2008, and “the bar is raised every year until 2014, when 100 percent proficiency is expected,” Gregory said.

She said that since most districts have lower test scores in math, the standards are set a bit lower for math proficiency. She said that in 2004 the expected math proficiency rate is 35 percent, and each year districts must report a 10 percent increase until reaching 100 percent proficiency.

“These standards are based on 95 percent of the student population taking the tests,” said Gregory.

Superintendent Robert Nagy said the district is required to provide the government with report cards that show the percentage of students that are proficient, advanced, basic and below basic in each category.

He reported that at this point, about 98 percent of Belle Vernon Area students are taking the assessment tests.

According to his report of the last two years, most of the grades that were tested showed 50 percent or more of the students proficient in math and reading, but the reading scores were consistently higher than the math scores. Grade 11 was the only one that showed lower scores in the 2003 school year than in the year before.

Director Deborah Puglia asked what might be the reason for that result and what could be done to improve the scores.

“Every so often we’ll have a group of students that does not perform as well as the others,” said Nagy. “Also, as we saw on this presentation, the bar keeps going up each year, and we have to take that into consideration. These are high-stakes tests, and I don’t believe that any one test alone could be reliable in measuring a student’s ability. There are many other factors in that. We do need to address math, and whatever we are doing with reading seems to be working. We may want to analyze what we are doing with reading and transfer those methods to math as well.”

A district not meeting the standards will be placed on a warning list the first year but can be removed from that list if it meets the expectations the next two years. The second year that a district fails to meet the requirements, parents will have the right to move their students to other schools, at the cost of the district. After four years of failure to meet the standards, the state will intervene by getting involved with the district’s curriculum and policies.

Belle Vernon Area reported a 95.7 senior graduation rate last year, meeting the standard.

However, the 94.025 percent attendance rate at Bellmar and Rostraver middle schools did not meet the requirement.

“These schools did make the warning list because of attendance, but no other schools were on the warning list for any other reason,” said Nagy.

He added that although Bellmar Middle School did not meet attendance requirements last year, the school had significant growth on test scores compared with previous years.

“Initially, the high school students did not take these tests seriously because there was nothing tangible to relate them to,” said Nagy. “But that has evolved in time. Last year, the re-test was implemented, and many of the students took the test again and did improve. The state issues a certificate in proficiency in each category, and the students are realizing that they do need to take these tests seriously.”

Director Dale Patterson added that the test scores are placed on the students’ permanent records.

“They may take them more seriously knowing that the scores go on their permanent record to be sent to colleges, and possibly employers.”