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Community Meetings

<p class="body" style="text-align: left;">Dallas and Lake-Lehman high schools not only posted impressive &#8220;School Performance Profiles&#8221; this year, they showed substantial gains from last year&#8217;s scores, which are intended to be an overall gauge of academic achievement. But they were two of only four Luzerne County public high schools to improve. The other 10 saw declines.</p><p>While SPP scores are based on a wide range of factors, results from three Keystone exams &#8212; math, science and English Language Arts (ELA) &#8212; weigh heavily in the equation. Though Northwest Area&#8217;s SPP score of 74.1 was far behind the 91.3 in Dallas and 90.9 of Lake-Lehman, the county&#8217;s smallest district posted the best local results in ELA and math Keystone exams.</p><p>The SPP score can range from 0 to 100 with 7 potential &#8220;extra credit&#8221; points bringing the maximum score to 107. When the system was introduced in 2013, then-Acting Secretary of Education Carolyn Dumaresq said a good gauge for success would be an SPP score of 70 or better.</p><p>By that benchmark, Luzerne County Schools have been declining. The first year of the SPP scores, eight of 14 high schools topped 70, compared to four this year. But in a teleconference Wednesday, Deputy Secretary for Elementary and Secondary Education Matt Stem stressed that the state never officially set 70 as an SPP benchmark.</p><p>Instead, Stem said, &#8220;our message is built around increasing proficiency.&#8221; Regardless of the starting point, the goal should always be to get better, he said.</p><p>In fact, Stem said, the state is taking a close look at the three-year-old SPP system, originated under freshman Gov. Tom Wolf&#8217;s predecessor, Tom Corbett. Stem said the system &#8220;gives us a snapshot that is overwhelmingly influenced by one assessment,&#8221; the Keystone ELA exam.</p><p>&#8220;Over the last several months we have been looking at ways we can score more holistically,&#8221; he said, adding the state is working with stakeholders including educators, parents and employers to make sure the SPP score reflects a school&#8217;s success. &#8220;We really have to make sure we&#8217;re measuring the right thing.&#8221;</p><p>The fact that most local schools have seen SPPs decline is reflected statewide. &#8220;The overall trend is slightly downward,&#8221; Stem said.</p><p>While the state released SPP scores for all public schools in 2013 and 2014, only schools with an 11th grade received a rating this year.</p><p>That&#8217;s because the SPP scores for lower grades rely heavily on the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment test results, and those tests were changed so completely this year &#8212; aligning them with new education standards &#8212; that scores could not be compared to prior years.</p><p>In contrast, high school SPP scores use the Keystone Exams, which remain unchanged since the introduction of the SPP system. The state plans to resume giving SPP scores to all schools next year.</p><p>Some local highlights from this year&#8217;s SPP scores and Keystone results:</p><p>&#8226; Lake-Lehman High School had the biggest increase in SPP score, from 84.1 to 90.9, with Dallas second, from 87.5 to 91.3. Wyoming Valley West High School had the biggest decrease, from 74.4 to 67. 5.</p><p>&#8226; While Northwest Area posted the best ELA and math scores in the Keystone exams &#8212; 89.5 percent proficient or better in the the former and 72.4 percent in the latter &#8212; Dallas had the best results in science with 71.6 percent.</p><p>&#8226; Wilkes-Barre Area&#8217;s GAR Memorial High School had the lowest SPP score at 47, and had the poorest results in all three Keystone exams, barely cracking double digits in math with 10.7 percent of students scoring proficient or better.</p><p>The GAR results are likely to add fuel to the ongoing debate over the Wilkes-Barre Area School Board&#8217;s plan to merge Meyers and Coughlin High Schools into a new school to be built at the Coughlin site.</p><p>One of the recurring criticisms raised by those who oppose the plan has been a fear that GAR students would be neglected in an older building while the rest of the high school students get the advantage of a larger, state-of-the art high school.</p><style>
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<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Mark Guydish</p><p>mguydish@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Mark Guydish at 570-991-6112 or on Twitter @TLMarkGuydish</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Dallas High School gets area’s best “performance” score, Northwest Area is tops in English and Math