At the Oct. 30 curriculum and technology committee meeting, building principals and administrators shared district testing results, data sources and an overview of systems and training modules in place to assist students.

At the high school level, Principal Heather Morningstar and Assistant Principal Brian Muschlitz said the Literature Keystone Performance showed a 73.43 percent proficiency and 82 percent of students are meeting annual academic growth expectations. Nine of the 31 learning support students are proficient.

In the Biology Keystone Performance, 70.83 percent of students showed proficiency. Results show the high school is on track to close the achievement gap especially for historically under-performing students and 78 percent of students are meeting annual academic growth expectations. Nine of the 31 learning support students are proficient in this category.

Administrators said the Math Keystone Performance is the area of greatest challenge, especially for students who receive special education services - four of the 31 learning support students were proficient. The results showed 64.79 percent of students showed proficiency in math. SHS is not currently on track to close the gap for all students.

Salisbury Middle School Principal Ken Parliman and Assistant Principal Rob Sawicki said the testing results showed all grade levels demonstrated growth and met the three year growth measure in math. In language, students in sixth and eighth grades demonstrated growth and exceeded growth standard over a three year average.

In science, middle school students met the growth standard.

The challenges at middle school are that all grades were below the state average in math. In language, seventh grade students in the proficient/advanced growth categories did not demonstrate adequate growth. In science, the students are below the state average and did not meet the three year growth measure.

Supervisor of Instructional Practice Ross Cooper presented the data on Harry S Truman Elementary School. The strengths show the combined scores in all tested subjects are above state average. Students in third grade are 10 percent above state average for language and 4.7 percent above state average for math. Fifth grade students were 4.1 percent above state average for math.

Cooper said there is significant evidence students in fourth and fifth grade exceeded the standard for academic growth for language. The number of students in all grades identified as proficient/advanced in language improved each year over a three year average and third and fifth grade students improved proficient/advanced in math.

The challenges include being below state average for proficient/advanced in language for fourth and fifth grades. There is moderate evidence fourth grade math did not meet the standard for academic growth and fewer special education and English language learners scored proficient/advanced in comparison to other subgroups.

Assistant Superintendent for Teaching and Learning Lynn Fuini-Hetten provided the data on Western Salisbury Elementary School.

In all grades and all subject areas, WSE students performed above the state average and there was improvement in PSSA scores over last year.

The grade four PSSA math scores fell by eight percent.

Principals and administrators shared with the committee next steps to address the concerns around the testing results, keeping the students in the forefront.