Lenape Tech Working to Improve Academic Performance
Lenape Tech Principal Karen Brock talks with Joint Operating Committee school directors about the technical school’s performance on the latest school performance profile.
by Jonathan Weaver
Last school year’s School Performance Profile results were released online two weeks ago, and Lenape Tech administrators have already come up with a plan to improve their scores.
Overall, the school of more than 560 students from Apollo-Ridge, Armstrong, Freeport Area and Leechburg Area school districts scored an overall 66.5 out of a total 70 points.
Each data element was valued differently in the eyes of the state Department of Education.
While proficiency on the PSSA/Keystone Exams in the areas of mathematics, literature and science were low, – indicated with an open-red arrow pointing downward -, Lenape Tech received positive marks for graduation rate, attendance rate and students involved in advanced placement classes.
Not all areas of the academic performance report were applicable to the technical school in Manor Township.
Lenape Tech achieved a 74.6 score during the 2013-14 school year and scored higher in the three indicators of academic achievement.
Principal Karen Brock gave her during last night’s Joint Operating Committee meeting with local school directors.
“We are going to really focus on literacy strategies across the entire program,” Brock said. “We had done that many years ago, and we think we need to go back to it again to look at text-dependent analysis, comprehension in both fiction and non-fiction and to make sure our students are actually understanding and can analyze what they are reading, not just read the words.”
Brock said the extra assistance with both technical and academic students will also help students prepare for their NOCTI exams, SAT’s and industry certifications.
“A lot of my teachers have gone to a different supervision model this year where they are incorporating different reading strategies and they are already working with students in the technical and academic programs to (not only) increase our scores, but more importantly, help the kids be more successful,” Brock said. “Every one of them they have to read to understand the questions in order to be successful.”
Administrative Director Dawn Kocher-Taylor thought the scores were in-line with what was expected.
“Of course we’d always like them to be higher, but we’re pleased that we can identify the areas that we are weak in and drill those down to specific objectives in the math, reading and biology curriculum,” Kocher-Taylor said. “We’re grateful to have that guide to self-monitor and improve.”
Education Secretary Pedro A. Rivera said a school’s SPP score relies heavily on state assessment scores, but also includes college readiness tests, industry standards-based assessments, graduation, promotion, and attendance rates, as well as evidence of offering rigorous courses as other factors in the calculation.
Secretary Rivera, however, emphasized that while standardized tests, like the Keystones, provide useful information for educators, stakeholders, and policymakers about the commonwealth’s students and schools, the state Department of Education is currently working with Governor Wolf to identify additional, more holistic measures for evaluating students and schools.
In other matters, it was the last Joint Operating Committee meeting for Apollo-Ridge school board director Sharon Jaworskyj – who has served as a committee member for more than 16 years.
Jaworskyj said she enjoyed her time serving the board and joked with Kocher-Taylor and JOC President Joseph Close about attending meetings in the future as a visitor.
Local News | jweaver November 20, 2015
1 Comment
Other Links to this Post
RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI
Leave a comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.
By sickofpayingforit, November 22, 2015 @ 5:24 PM
The good news is the weaknesses have been visualized.
The bad news is life is just too easy for all of the failing mangers in this area’s schools. They say they know what is wrong, mention a few ideas to fix it, not much changes, most importantly, the name plates on their doors!
How about mixing it up and demanding results from management for once? The weaknesses have been provided by the state. Fix them by such and such a date, or we are going another direction. Why are there never fires put underneath these people to get results? I can assure you a ten point drop in results, in the private sector, wouldn’t be met with such a warm reception by responsible’s managers supervision……..
Also, correct me if I am wrong but isn’t Lenape Tech for 11th and 12th graders? Reading comprehension???? How did kids with reading comprehension issues get past the lower grades to be at this point with these issues? Which manager is reviewing this situation and handing out discipline for obvious negligence to allow juniors and seniors to get that far with reading comprehension issues?
We accept failure much too easily in our schools and quite frankly, don’t push our six figure managers hard enough to get results.