The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania recently released official results for the 2001-02 PSSA exams in math, reading and writing, and the Tyrone Area School District students, staff, parents and taxpayers can all be proud. The class of 2003 is at the top of the state of Pennsylvania in total achievement within its similar schools class — the academic equivalent of the PIAA class system for athletics. According to the Pennsylvania System of Scholastic Assessment and Standard and Poors School Evaluation Services, Tyrone is classified as a rural school with a higher than average percentage of low income students and a much higher than average special education population.
“These numbers offer encouraging news in the face of what many educators perceive as a political pipe-dream,” remarked Tyrone English Chair Steve Everhart. “President Bush’s ‘No Child Left Behind’ legislation requires all students be profecient on state exams by the year 2012, so most of Pennsylvania’s schools, many of whom have less than half of their kids passing these exams, are scratching their heads for an answer. The answer is simple — have high expectations. But this is everybody’s charge. We need parent, community, and administrative support to make sure that no child fails. If everybody is willing to uphold real consequences for kids and to pay more than lip-service to first-rate instruction, kids will succeed.”
The numbers prove it. What is most encouraging about the recent PSSA statistics is that Tyrone’s most at-risk students — those from low-income homes especially — are excelling at rates that defy the economic odds against them. The PSSA classifies student performance as Advanced, Profecient, Basic and Below Basic. While only 39 percent of low income students statewide were Profecient on the PSSA writing exam, 82 percent of low income Tyrone juniors made the mark. In fact out of 142 regular education students taking the writing exam, none were classified as Below Basic — the lowest level of achievement — and only six fell short of profeciency.
Similarly, only one regular education student out of the 142 scored Below Basic on the reading exam, a test on which Tyrone placed over five times more low-income students (19 percent) in the Advanced range than did other schools in the state (3 percent). Even in math, the figures are phenomenal. Economically disadvantaged students placed in the Advanced range in math at a rate over three times the state average (21 percent versus 6 percent), while the number of students scoring in the Below Basic range was more than cut in half since last year’s PSSA math exam.
Of course, Tyrone Schools are not only helping those students with economic disadvantages at higher levels. A comparison of scores within the Intermediate Unit 8 conglomerate of public schools comprising Blair, Bedford, Somerset and Cambria Counties, shows Tyrone placing more students in the top Advanced range in reading (31 percent) than any other district.
In fact, for the first time in school history, the composite math, reading and writing scores this year were the highest in the Intermediate Unit of 40 public schools in the four-county area, with reading and writing scores outpacing many of the state’s wealthiest districts, like Bethel Park by over 100 points.
Class of 2003 PSSA performance (2001-02)
Similar schools Class
Rank School Math Reading Writing Total
1. Tyrone 1400 1430 1400 4230
2. Bloomsburg 1370 1390 1430 4190
3. Maplewood 1410 1380 1330 4120
4. Wallenpaupack 1320 1340 1410 4070
5. Forest Hills 1310 1340 1360 4010
6. Jamestown 1390 1320 1280 3990
7. Lackawanna 1360 1320 1300 3980
8. Cranberry 1310 1300 1350 3960
State Average (all 501 districts) 1320 1320 1320 3960
Similar Schools Average 1310 1320 1310 3940
9. Ridgway 1330 1310 1300 3940
10. Redbank Valley 1280 1310 1340 3930
11. Reynolds 1300 1350 1270 3920
12. Sullivan County 1320 1310 1260 3890
13. Millville 1310 1340 1230 3880
14. Central 1300 1280 1280 3860
15. Port Allegheny 1250 1300 1300 3850
15. Williams Valley 1250 1300 1300 3850
17. Elderton 1250 1270 1320 3840
17. Brockway 1280 1310 1250 3840
17. Lewistown 1290 1280 1270 3840
20. Towanda 1250 1280 1250 3780
21. Moniteau 1260 1230 1220 3710
Source: Tyrone Area School District.
