EAST WHITELAND — In a first for the school district, Great Valley High School did not achieve adequate yearly progress this year as required by the federal No Child Left Behind law.
Eleventh-grade special-education students held the school back with only 23 percent of these students testing at the proficient level on the math portion of the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment test. The standard is 56 percent.
The same students also fell short on the reading portion of the standardized tests, with only 40 percent testing proficient as opposed to the required 63 percent.
All other schools in the Great Valley School District met adequate yearly progress, the district announced Sept. 14,
"While it is one subgroup at the high school that has put us in warning, we analyze assessment information for all students to identify strength and challenge areas," said Interim Superintendent Melody Wilt in a statement.
Stephen O'Toole, data achievement supervisor at Great Valley School District, said each year it is a different group of special-education students that are being tested.
The Pennsylvania Department of Education evaluates adequate yearly progress at the public schools with the PSSA that is administered in the spring. Students in grades three through eight as well as the 11th grade are required to take the PSSA, which includes math and language arts.
The goal of the No Child Left Behind legislation is to have all students test 100 percent proficient in math and reading by 2014.
In addition to the requirement that all schools and the school district as a whole meet overall standards, all subgroups must also meet the requirements.
A subgroup is a group of 40 or more students of a particular race or special need. Some of the other subgroups are students who are not fluent in English, special-education and economically disadvantaged students.
The school district has taken steps to improve performance of special-education and other students.
One model being used is a co-teaching model, whereby teachers work side by side teaching a course. An 11th-grade math course will be taught by a certified math teacher working with a certified special-education math teacher. This way, special-education students are taught in the same classrooms as other students rather than in separate environments. Other students in the class who are learning at a slower pace can also benefit.
The district has also introduced a program called measures of academic progress, which is a computerized adaptive assessment. Students take the test on a computer and the computer adapts to the student's academic level based on how well the students answer questions.
"It's a way to see what the student is having trouble with," said O'Toole.
Last year, the program was administered to all special-education and ninth-grade students. This school year, the program will be administered three times a year to special-education students who have individualized education plans. By 2011, all Great Valley students will take the "measures of academic progress" test.
To contact staff writer Anne Pickering, send an e-mail to
apickering@dailylocal.com.
