ASD Assistant Superintendent Cheryl Soloski reviewed state assessment guidelines with school directors last month.
Pennsylvania has adopted a new accountability reporting system and the Armstrong School District (ASD) is looking to modify some of its approach to education to comply in 2020.
ASD Assistant Superintendent Cheryl Soloski explained the school board last month three categories the reporting system now uses to measure growth in terms of student achievement. Along with principals from each elementary and the two high schools, Soloski presented statistics that show ASD students to be near, or in some cases, above the statewide assessment measures.
She said that one of the measurements at the elementary level is attendance.
“Attendance is measured by students who have been present for 90% of the time. That’s the formula they use to gauge what our regular attendance is,” she said.
Soloski also said the State uses assessments from third grade Reading and seventh grade Math as early indicators of success.
“It’s kind of a threshold for the District to be able to know how well we are on-track with reaching our goals in terms of student achievement,” she said.
ASD Assistant Superintendent Joshua Williams shows presentation on changes that need to happen to stay academically progressive.
With regards to high school students, Assistant Superintendent Joshua Williams said there are some changes he would like to see implemented in the 2020-2021 school year.
“There is an emphasis now on industry-based learning,” Williams said. “Credit is being given in that area for students who do well on an industry-based accepted assessment exam or have earned an industry-based certification based on work experiences. A lot of those things are done at Lenape Tech. We are looking at some work-based experiences for our kids right now. We need to build some partnerships to give kids internships and opportunities for our students that do not attend Lenape.”
Williams said he intends to come to the Board at the January meeting with some options to change how high schoolers are scheduled.
“We want to change how we do scheduling and what we permit kids to do to try to encourage greater participation in dual enrollment,” he said.
Over the next week, the Kittanning Paper will feature information on individual schools regarding student performance.