In part two of the district testing summary, each principal gave the committee an overview of the scores on the school performance profile, recently released by the Pennsylvania Department of Education at its most recent curriculum meeting. Each team provided a plan of action for challenges and gaps seen. The District Testing Summary usually done each October, looked at PSSA scores, the No Child Left Behind rating and ethnicity.

In October 2013, PDE released the school performance profile. In the past, a school district's rating was based on proficiency; with the school performance profile, proficiency is about half of that score. The other half is described as growth. Growth is described as how far the students grow in the course of a year.

Assistant Superintendent Randy Ziegenfuss told the committee students in third through eighth grade take the PSSA tests and students in grades nine through 12 take the Keystone exams.

At Harry S Truman Elementary School, Principal Barbara Samide looked at the strengths and weaknesses of the students. Samide said the language barrier for the English Language Learners is affecting the students as they are tested. The test scores for the economically disadvantaged students are low.

Samide said the reading, math and writing reporting categories are within 1 percent point of state average scores.

HST has a 96.4 percent attendance and they are meeting annual academic growth expectations. An after school program is offered two days a week where all students can stay for help. There is a half hour strategic intervention daily and data monitoring is discussed at monthly meetings.

Samide said monitoring begins in kindergarten and PSSA testing begins in third grade. Samide said she has seen a drop in gifted students at the school and transiency affects it the most.

At Western Salisbury Elementary School, Principal Grace Hartman said they have put together a school team to address weaknesses in the scoring. She said many of the students who did not score well are receiving special education, ESL or other services.

Hartman said they will use progress monitoring and child study teams to identify new students needing support and add challenges to move the proficient students to advanced. She said they will maintain professional development with a focus on math Common Core standards.

For the ESL students, they intend to increase translator services and coordinate services for students identified as special education and ESL.

At Salisbury Middle School, the building level academic score was 89.4 percent. Principal Bob Cassisdy said they have very few ESL students; their biggest challenge is those students with individualized education programs.

Cassidy said in the summer, they will receive the PSSA results, review the data in September and an inservice team will meet in October to review the curriculum.

Weekly team meetings are held to review quarterly reports, benchmark tests, reading counts scores, Study Island, dibels for Title 1 kids (progress monitoring), reading screening and weekly probes in math.

Read 180 program is available for those reading below level, with co-taught classes and free online resources to supplement activities in classroom.

Cassidy agreed the special education students learn at a different pace which affects testing scores.

Board member Bob Fischer asked if the district could get an educational data analyst to analyze the data rather than administrators and principals. Roth said he gets nervous about hiring one person to analyze all the data. "The benefits of multiple people are that they are then invested in the plan." Roth said they could look at it and have a conversation with the administrators and principals. Board member Audrey Frick noted hiring a data analyst would cost additional money.

At SHS, Principal Heather Morningstar said the special education students are performing significantly lower than regular education students.

Nora Perron-Jones said they are looking for programs to assist these students. With the PSSA testing, there was a modified test for special education students taken off the table by the federal government.

The school will continue the use of Study Island benchmarking for those students needing assistance and they will evaluate and choose a special education math program similar to Read 180 for reading. An intermediate unit math consultant will work with the district to choose a program.

Morningstar said the Falcon period is used to work with students in deficiency areas.

"The biology scores stood out to us," Morningstar said. The students took the test a full year after taking the course. She said other schools in the area have the same concerns about biology.

This year, Morningstar said they will evaluate the following: Is the biology curriculum tightly aligned to the Common Core, is introduction to biology serving the needs of the struggling/reluctant learners, is the scope and sequence appropriate and is it preparing students for the Keystone exams?

Morningstar said they have a comprehensive re-mediation plan to help students who were not proficient.

She said they would like to increase the PSAT participation at the high school; points are awarded in the student performance profile for the percentage of students who take the PSAT as juniors. Morningstar said there is a correlation between PSAT performance and SAT performance.

She asked the board to consider administering the test during the school day which would take approximately three hours. It would cost roughly $2,000 for all juniors to test.

Morningstar said the benefits of doing so would include increasing the PSAT participation score on the school performance profile, it would be another indicator of college readiness and encourage students to pursue post-secondary education. It would also provide opportunities that might be missed due to economic need, scheduling or transportation issues. The PSAT is a National Merit Scholar qualifying exam.