Time to take another look at school rewards
Gov. Mark Schweiker recently announced that $24.6 million would be split between 878 schools that showed improvements in PSSA scores and attendance rates. The School Performance Funding grants are meant as a reward to schools that worked hard to raise the scores on tests given each year to third, fifth, eighth and 11th graders.
The process is similar to dad opening his wallet and doling out money to reward his kids for each “A” on their report cards. Scholastic achievement by students is cause for celebration. But Pennsylvania policy makers must ask if this is the best way to ensure that schools are producing students with well-rounded educations prepared to enter the workplace or higher education without the need for remedial help.
The reward system does offer the incentive to try harder but it fails to acknowledge that some schools lack the resources to purchase additional learning material or they have a higher percentage of students with disabilities.
No school would turn away extra money, but as Chuck Machesky, superintendent of the Uniontown Area School District, points out there is another flaw in Pennsylvania’s system.
Lest anyone think that Machesky is speaking with a mouthful of sour grapes, think again. Uniontown was the biggest winner of Fayette’s school districts, with a combined local award of $46,740. This funding is based on scores earned by students last year. It is not indicative of the knowledge or work of students in those grades this year.
Machesky said relying solely on PSSA scores to measure a school’s achievements fails because it does not track continual progress by students or gauge whether schools are teaching to the test for reading and math and forgoing other subjects in a well-rounded curriculum.
Schools that have made marked improvements should be recognized. But schools that are struggling need help.
Each year when the PSSA scores are posted it is interesting to note the variations that exist, not just when comparing say Uniontown and Brownsville school districts but when looking at results from students in say Marclay and Ben Franklin. The school within the district that does well stands to win a state grant to be plowed back into that particular school to create an even better program with more resources. The underachieving school receives no additional financial aid to work with the students. In other words the best schools get better; the worst schools stagnate.
Pennsylvania is taking the easy way out in relying solely on PSSA scores to judge a school’s effectiveness. The performance grants were a creation of former Gov. Tom Ridge. With a new administration preparing to take office, now would be a good time to review the program and devise a better way of recognizing achievement without penalizing schools with little resources.