School Performance Profiles Released

This week, the Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) released the 2014-2015 School Performance Profiles (SPP) for all public (including charter) high schools in Pennsylvania. The SPP is the federal accountability measure used in Pennsylvania to replace the previous accountability requirements under No Child Left Behind.    

The final grade or score for each high school is based mostly on standardized test scores (AP, SAT, NOCTI), with the Keystone Exam accounting for 80% of the overall score. Other indicators of school performance include: attendance, graduation rates, and student participation and performance in Advanced Placement courses. Although the score for Palisades High School has decreased over the past three years, this is not due to a dip in performance, rather to the inclusion each year of additional pieces of data into the calculation. To access Palisades High School SPP, please click here.

The Pennsylvania Department of Education did not issue 2014-2015  SPPs for elementary and middle schools due to the fact that the 2014-2015 tests were aligned to the PA Core Standards for the first time.

PDE is interested in expanding the measures they use to grade schools and I fully support this initiative. Later this month, Dr. Kate Kieres (Assistant Superintendent) and I will be meeting with representatives from PDE to discuss expanding measures of performance for elementary, middle and high schools.

Ideas that we will propose to PDE for a revised school report card will include indicators such as daily attendance rates, access to technology, class offerings (options beyond tested subjects), hours spent on high quality teacher and administrator professional development, number of students involved in dual enrollment (college) classes while still in high school, number of students engaged in an internship experience while still in high school,  freshman to sophomore persistence in college, and results of community satisfaction surveys. I will offer these as suggested criteria  not because I believe that we would hit 100% in each area but because I believe these are worthy measures to assess our performance as a district in educating Palisades students and preparing each of them for success after high school.

If you have other ideas that you would like me to share with PDE regarding criteria to use for a school report card I would appreciate your feedback.  Please email your ideas to me at boconnell@palisadessd.org; or Kate Kieres at kkieres@palisadessd.org

Our principals will be sharing their school improvement plans based on PSSA and Keystone data at the Education Programs and Services Meeting on January 13, 2016 from 7pm to 9pm at in the Palisades High School Audion. All are welcome to attend.