web1_Page-RNC_02co.jpg

RNC: Ohio delegation overjoyed by ‘Down Under’ speech

web1_RNCLogo400x400.jpg

RNC: On the issues: Economy

Fifteen Luzerne County Schools have been dubbed &#8220;Low Achieving&#8221; by the state Department of Education, up from 13 that made the list last year, and six that made the inaugural list in 2012.The good news, two Hazleton Area elementary/middle schools that had been on the list previously were taken off it: Heights Terrace and McAdoo-Kelayres.Here are the Luzerne County schools on this year&#8217;s list, by school district:Crestwood School District: Crestwood High School.Hanover Area School District: The Junior/Senior High School, and Hanover Area Memorial Elementary School.Hazleton Area School District: Hazleton Area High School and Freeland, Hazleton, and West Hazleton Elementary/Middle schools.Wilkes-Barre Area School District: All three high schools (Coughlin, Meyers and GAR), and Flood, Dodson, Kistler and Heights Murray Elementary schools.Wyoming Valley West School District: State Elementary Center.The list was created by Gov. Tom Wolf&#8217;s predecessor Tom Corbett as part of his &#8220;Opportunity Scholarship Tax Credit Program.&#8221; Corbett touted it as a way to expand school choice.There are three basic parts to the program: The annual list of low achieving schools, tax credits to businesses that contribute money to state-approved scholarship funds, and schools that accept students who are eligible for those scholarships.To create the annual list of low-achieving schools, the state combines the percentage of students scoring proficient or better in reading and math tests, then uses those numbers to rank elementary and high schools on separate lists. Any school in the bottom 15 percent of those two lists is &#8220;low achieving.&#8221;Students who live in the attendance zone of a low achieving school become eligible for scholarship money, even if they don&#8217;t attend the low achieving school in question. The scholarships can only be used to attend schools that are participating in the program. While the number of local schools on the low achieving list has expanded each year, the number of schools accepting the opportunity scholarships stayed the same the last two years: 15.The first list came out in 2012 with six Luzerne County schools included. Two were in Hazleton Area School District: the high school and Hazleton Elementary/Middle School. Four were in Wilkes-Barre Area School District: GAR Memorial High School and Dodson, Kistler and Heights-Murray elementary schools.All six were on the list in 2013, with five more local schools added: Heights Terrace and West Hazleton in Hazleton Area, Daniel Flood in Wilkes-Barre Area, State Street Elementary in Wyoming Valley West and Hanover Area Memorial Elementary.Last year, all those schools were again on the list, with three more from Luzerne County joining them: Hanover Area Junior/Senior High School, McAdoo-Kelayres in Hazleton Area and Meyers Junior/Senior High School in Wilkes-Barre Area.Public School advocates have criticized the list as a second way of measuring school success that can conflict with the state&#8217;s main gauge of achievement: The School Performance Profile, a single number given to each school based on a wide range of data, mostly standardized test results.Schools can earn an acceptable SPP score &#8212; there&#8217;s no mandate, but 70 is considered a good benchmark &#8212; yet still land on the low-achieving list.

17 Luzerne County schools on latest list of ‘low achieving schools’