CASD touts algebra scores at high schools
CHAMBERSBURG - Chambersburg Area School District believes having math coaches in classrooms and other initiatives helped both of its high schools achieve higher proficiency scores than the state average on standardized exams in algebra last year.
"As a result of these initiatives and hard work from our students, the CASD Algebra 1 Keystone Proficiency scores rose above the state average in 2017," district spokesperson Brian Miller said in an email.
Across the state, 43.4 percent of students scored proficient on the algebra Keystone Exam for the 2016-17 school year, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Education. In Chambersburg, 58.7 percent of test-takers at the Career Magnet School scored proficient, and 48.1 percent at Chambersburg Area Senior High School scored proficient - putting both above the state average.
However, CASHS's proficiency score in algebra dropped from the previous year, when 49.2 percent test-takers scored in the proficient range. CMS, meanwhile, achieved a significant jump over the previous year, when 44.9 percent of students scored in the proficient range. The state proficiency average that year, in 2015-16, was 47.6 percent.
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Keystone scores in algebra led to a score of 70.65 at CMS and 53.59 at CASHS in the subject area on the 2016-17 School Performance Profile.
Students take Keystone Exams in algebra, biology and English literature at the end of the term in which they took the subject, and the score on the test is factored in to the SPP score once the student reaches junior year.
The PDE has used SPPs for the last several years to show student performance based on Keystone Exams for high-school students, and PSSAs in math, science and English/language arts for elementary and middle-school students. Each school receives a score out of 100 based on standardized testing scores, as well as other measures, including academic growth, success in closing achievement gaps, college readiness and graduation rates, among others.
SPPs showing scores from the 2016-17 school year have been out about a month and a a half. Next year, the state will transition to the Future Ready PA Index, which "will utilize a dashboard approach to present school-level data, and will feature a broad range of indicators, such as English language acquisition, career readiness indicators, access to advanced coursework, and chronic absenteeism, among others," according to a news release from the PDE.
Overall, across all subject areas and other measures of growth and success, CMS achieved the third-highest score in the district, with 80. Guilford Hills Elementary had the highest score in the district (81.8), and Falling Spring Elementary was right behind it (80.7)
More than half of the 17 schools in the school district scored in the top two score groups, with seven - including both middle schools - scoring in the 70s, and three scoring in the 80s.
CASHS had the third-worst score in the district, in front of Grandview Elementary (59.4) and Stevens Elementary (50.8). Its 2016-17 score was the lowest since the first SPP was used in 2013-14.
Stevens' score fell significantly from 2015-16, when it was 66.9. The score for 2016-17 was the lowest score in Franklin County's five school districts.
Elsewhere, Andrew Buchanan, Fayetteville, Guilford Hills, Scotland and South Hamilton elementary schools and Chambersburg Area Middle School South all saw an uptick of at least seven points. On the other side, Falling Spring fell six points. Benjamin Chambers, Grandview, Hamilton Heights and Lurgan elementary schools and CAMS North all saw a difference of a few points.
Previous scores for Marion and New Franklin elementary schools were not available. Marion was replaced, opening at the start of the 2016-17 school year, and students went to New Franklin while Marion was under construction.
Miller noted that scores for grades kindergarten through eight - elementary and middle schools - can not be accurately compared to years before the 2015-16 school year due to changes in the PSSA.
Elsewhere
Shippensburg Area School District, which is split by Franklin and Cumberland counties, had the two highest scores in the whole five-district area.
Shippensburg Area Senior High School had the highest score, of 92.1. Grace B. Luhrs University Elementary School had an 88.5.
While CASHS scored among the worst in its district, other high schools in the Franklin County area achieved among the highest scores in their districts. Waynesboro, Greencastle-Antrim and James Buchanan all achieved their districts' highest scores, in the low 80s.
Fannett-Metal High School scored a 70.7, while that district's middle school and elementary school scored in the low 60s.
For more details, check out School Performance Profiles at http://www.paschoolperformance.org/.