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For Immediate
Release
2/23/11
Education Chairs Lead Effort to
Make School Data Available to Public
Website Depicts Measures of Student and School Progress
HARRISBURG – Parents who want to see how well their child's school is meeting
achievement standards can now access that data on their computer based on a new
state law spearheaded by Senator Jeffrey Piccola (R-15) and Representative Paul
Clymer (R-145), Chairmen of the Education Committees in the Senate and House of
Representatives.
The law, Act 104 of 2010, requires the Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE)
to post progress reports for school districts and individual schools online,
utilizing a statistical analysis known as PVAAS, or Pennsylvania Value-Added
Assessment System. Using analytics software from SAS, PVAAS analyzes
standardized testing results to show not only the achievement levels of each
school, but their improvement, stagnation, or decline over time.
By posting and analyzing the results of the test known as the Pennsylvania
System of School Assessment (PSSA), the public can see how well each school and
school district did at any point in time and can also track changes in
performance over time. The system also is designed to help schools forecast the
future to project a student's probable proficiency on the PSSA. Students in
danger of failing can be helped at the earliest possible juncture.
"Many taxpayers have been kept in the dark about how well their area school
is performing on standardized testing," Piccola said. "In this Age of
Information, the public should have access to complete and user-friendly data on
their neighborhood schools, and have the power to monitor their progress over
the years. PVAAS is designed to give taxpayers the truth about the return on
their investment in education."
"These reports show how much the same group of students improve academically
year to year and thus provide school administrations with valid, useful
information on the effectiveness of programs and curriculum. It will also allow
these same school administrators to compare their school districts programs with
comparable school districts in order to focus on what works best for our
children," said Clymer.
The public can view these newly published results reflecting a school and
district's growth at
https://pvaas.sas.com. Information relating to annual academic achievement
reports can be accessed by visiting:
http://paayp.emetric.net.
Acting Secretary of PDE, Ronald Tomalis, emphasized that the new PVAAS
website puts information about the quality of local schools at the parents'
fingertips. "Data that shows growth in student achievement demands that all
students – from our lowest performing to our most advanced - are being
appropriately challenged by their teachers. The data also helps identify where
our weaknesses are, where we can do more to serve the students. It moves us
away from defining success simply by stating how much more money is flowing into
public education and shifts it to whether or not students are learning," he
said.
The state Department of Education implemented the PVAAS program in 2002 and
expanded it to include all 500 school districts in Pennsylvania.
CONTACT:
Todd Abele (Clymer's Office), 717-783-3957
Colleen Greer (Piccola's Office), 717-787-6801
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