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 \u2014 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.
\n\u201cThese numbers offer encouraging news in the face of what many educators perceive as a political pipe-dream,\u201d remarked Tyrone English Chair Steve Everhart. \u201cPresident Bush\u2019s \u2018No Child Left Behind\u2019 legislation requires all students be profecient on state exams by the year 2012, so most of Pennsylvania\u2019s 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 \u2014 have high expectations. But this is everybody\u2019s 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.\u201d
\nThe numbers prove it. What is most encouraging about the recent PSSA statistics is that Tyrone\u2019s most at-risk students \u2014 those from low-income homes especially \u2014 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 \u2014 the lowest level of achievement \u2014 and only six fell short of profeciency.
\nSimilarly, 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\u2019s PSSA math exam.
\nOf 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.
\nIn 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\u2019s wealthiest districts, like Bethel Park by over 100 points.<\/p>\n
Class of 2003 PSSA performance (2001-02)
\nSimilar schools Class
\nRank\tSchool\t\t\tMath\t\tReading\tWriting\tTotal
\n1.\t\tTyrone\t\t1400\t\t1430\t\t1400\t\t4230
\n2.\t\tBloomsburg\t\t1370\t\t1390\t\t1430\t\t4190
\n3.\t\tMaplewood\t\t1410\t\t1380\t\t1330\t\t4120
\n4.\t\tWallenpaupack\t1320\t\t1340\t\t1410\t\t4070
\n5.\t\tForest Hills\t\t1310\t\t1340\t\t1360\t\t4010
\n6.\t\tJamestown\t\t1390\t\t1320\t\t1280\t\t3990
\n7.\t\tLackawanna\t\t1360\t\t1320\t\t1300\t\t3980
\n8.\t\tCranberry\t\t1310\t\t1300\t\t1350\t\t3960
\nState Average (all 501 districts)\t1320\t\t1320\t\t1320\t\t3960
\nSimilar Schools Average \t\t1310\t\t1320\t\t1310\t\t3940
\n9. \t\tRidgway\t\t1330\t\t1310\t\t1300\t\t3940
\n10. \t\tRedbank Valley\t1280\t\t1310\t\t1340\t\t3930
\n11.\t\tReynolds\t\t1300\t\t1350\t\t1270\t\t3920
\n12.\t\tSullivan County\t1320\t\t1310\t\t1260\t\t3890
\n13.\t\tMillville\t\t1310\t\t1340\t\t1230\t\t3880
\n14.\t\tCentral\t\t\t1300\t\t1280\t\t1280\t\t3860
\n15.\t\tPort Allegheny\t1250\t\t1300\t\t1300\t\t3850
\n15.\t\tWilliams Valley\t1250\t\t1300\t\t1300\t\t3850
\n17.\t\tElderton\t\t1250\t\t1270\t\t1320\t\t3840
\n17.\t\tBrockway\t\t1280\t\t1310\t\t1250\t\t3840
\n17.\t\tLewistown\t\t1290\t\t1280\t\t1270\t\t3840
\n20.\t\tTowanda\t\t1250\t\t1280\t\t1250\t\t3780
\n21.\t\tMoniteau\t\t1260\t\t1230\t\t1220\t\t3710<\/p>\n
Source: Tyrone Area School District.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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 \u2014 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47782","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news-in-the-tyrone-pennsylvania-area"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47782","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=47782"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47782\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=47782"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=47782"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=47782"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}