Yesterday, the Tyrone Area School District announced that it received $103,011 performance-incentive award from the Pennsylvania Department of Education. Tyrone Area received the award as a result of improved performance on the 2002 Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA) and/or improved attendance rates.
School were eligible for the rewards based upon improvements in two areas: achievement and effort.
Achievement is measured by performance on the PSSA. At the district level this year, the Department added achievement awards for the following groups: students with disabilities, students who are English language learners and students who are economically disadvantaged. Effort is measured by a school’s attendance rates.
To qualify for an achievement improvement award, a school’s 2002 PSSA average reading and mathematics scores had to be at least 50 points higher than its baseline score. To qualify for an effort improvement award, a school’s 2001-2002 attendance rate had to be .75 percent higher than its baseline rate.
Tyrone Area School District joins 878 other schools in Pennsylvania that received school-performance awards. The average 2002 PSSA achievement improvement award is $28,475 and the average attendance improvement award is $14,857.
“We’re thrilled to receive these awards,” said Tyrone Assistant Superintendent of Schools Joann Lang. “We’re very pleased with the hard work the staff and administration has worked to achieve these scores.”
Lang was very quick to praise the Tyrone faculty for the improvement.
“Our teachers took this seriously,” said Lang. “They instilled the seriousness of this testing to the kids. Our teachers and students have a very high accountability for the performance on these tests.”
Tyrone received $42,364 due to the 160 point improvement of Grade 11 reading and math scores, $35,360 for the 160 point improvement of Grade 8 reading and math scores, $11,328 was awarded for the 2002 PSSA Achievement Award for Disaggregated Group (economically disadvantaged students) and $13,959 for the attendance effort improvement for the Tyrone Elementary School.
These awards have specific ways they can be spent by the school district:
• At least 50 percent of the award must be spent on planning, delivery and assessment of the instructional program, including staff development for these purposes.
• Up to 25 percent may be spent on staff rewards.
• The expenditure of the remaining funds is determined by the school committee. All expenditures are accomplished through normal school district procurement procedures which include school board approval.
“We have had luncheons for the staff,” said Lang. “It was one way that we have rewarded their hard work. We have also formed a parent committee to help find ways to reward the students for their hard work.”
With the improvement shown by the Tyrone students, Lang was quick to mention the goals just keep getting higher.
“Of course we want to continue to improve,” said Lang. “We have already met the standards for the State’s ‘No Child Left Behind’ policy. It is difficult to improve on the scores we posted. We definitely want to maintain these high standards.”
