Apr 20, 2014 4 min read

(This is the second in a two-part series)

I know what you’re thinking.

After reading the first part of this series in Friday’s paper, you’re probably thinking, “so what?” What does it matter that the schools in Fayette County compare very unfavorably to schools throughout Western Pennsylvania on standardized test scores?

After all, this is nothing new, and how can students in our poverty-ridden school districts compete with students in such wealthy school districts as Upper St. Clair and Mount Lebanon?

Well, the truth is that we can’t expect our students to outscore students from wealthy school districts on standardized tests. But can’t our students compete with other school districts with similar economic backgrounds such as the nearby Southmoreland School District?

In Southmoreland, 48.5 percent of its students are eligible for the free and reduced-price lunch program, which is based on income. That’s only three percentage points lower than Laurel Highlands. Yet, Southmoreland was ranked 30th, while Laurel Highlands was rated 80th by the Pittsburgh Business Times, which recently released its ranking of 105 school districts in the seven-county Greater Pittsburgh Metropolitan Area.

The rankings are based on the past three years of the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA) test scores in math, reading and science. Frazier was the top-rated Fayette County school district, being rated 48. It was followed by Laurel Highlands at 80, Uniontown Area at 82, Connellsville Area at 86, Albert Gallatin at 88 and Brownsville Area at 95.

Consider also the Kiski Area School District. In that Westmoreland County school district, 41.2 students are eligible for free and reduced lunches, 7 percent more than Frazier, yet it was ranked 23rd.

So, while economics can be a factor, it shouldn’t be used as the sole excuse for low test scores.

The biggest problem with the low test scores is that they’re huge obstacles for parents looking to move into Fayette County. The rankings are on the Internet for everyone to see and evaluate. Parents with young children look at those numbers very closely.

The hope was that the completion of the Mon-Fayette Expressway would make it easier for residents in Allegheny County to the north and Morgantown in the south to live here and commute to their jobs. With plenty of cheap land and low taxes, everyone thought it would be a no-brainer and people would come here in droves boosting our population and, most importantly, our tax base.

However, our population continues to drop. Recent figures released by the U.S. Census Bureau showed that Fayette County lost 1,600 residents between April 1, 2010, and July 1, 2013. That was on top of a loss of 12,039 (8.1 percent) during the previous decade. Since the 2000 census, Fayette County’s population has dropped from 148,645 to 135,006, a loss of approximately 9 percent. Fayette County’s population is now at its lowest mark since the early 1900s.

There are some who criticize the testing, and the scores might not be the most reliable indicator of the job our teachers and administrators are doing. But the test scores are all that matters to many parents who don’t have time for lengthy evaluations and comparisons of local school districts.

So, chances are those parents won’t consider moving into Fayette County until those test scores improve. And, unless these folks come here, Fayette County doesn’t stand a chance of stemming its population losses.

It’s also interesting that the Frazier School District is the top ranked school district in the county. Certainly it’s better off economically than the rest of the school districts in the county, but it’s also the only school district in the county with an anti-nepotism policy.

The late Frazier School District Superintendent Dr. Frederick Smeigh always credited the anti-nepotism policy with being one of the main reasons for the district’s academic success. You have to wonder why none of the other county school districts have tried to implement such a policy. After all, desperate times sometimes call for desperate measures.

Mark O’Keefe is the editorial page editor of the Herald-Standard. He can be reached by phone at 724-439-7569, by email at mokeefe@heraldstandard. com or by regular mail at 8 Church St., Uniontown, Pa., 15401.