DV one of only 3 districts in northeast PA to exceed all averages on state tests, SATS

From The Scranton Times-Tribune:

Only three of 37 school districts in Northeast Pennsylvania exceed all averages on state tests and the SAT, according to Times-Shamrock Newspapers' annual analysis of academic performance.

The districts - Crestwood, Dallas and Delaware Valley - outperformed the other districts in Lackawanna, Luzerne, Monroe, Pike, Susquehanna, Wayne and Wyoming counties.

Per-pupil spending at DV was $11,424, according to the Times database. Of the 501 Pennsylvania school districts in the database, 348 or about 70 percent of PA school districts spend more money than DV. 

DV schools the highest marks of the 37 NEPA school districts in the following testing categories, which are listed at the bottom of the Grading our Schools article:

Third-grade math
Highs: Delaware Valley, 95.2 percent; Abington Heights, 92.5 percent

- Fourth-grade math
Highs: Delaware Valley, 96.5 percent; Susquehanna Community, 92 percent

- Fourth-grade reading
Highs: Delaware Valley, 90.3; Abington Heights, 85.3 percent

- Fifth-grade reading
Highs: Delaware Valley, 81.2 percent; Dallas, 80.8 percent

- Sixth-grade reading
Highs: Abington Heights, 87.2 percent; Delaware Valley, 87.2 percent

- Seventh-grade math
Highs: Delaware Valley, 91.2 percent; Abington Heights, 88.5 percent

- Seventh-grade reading
Highs: Abington Heights, 91.5 percent; Delaware Valley, 87.9 percent

- 11th-grade reading
Highs: Delaware Valley, 81.4 percent; Carbondale Area, 81.1 percent

Courier roundup: More on the Krise fuel controversy, Splendora rises from the dead

• Misuse claims unresolved
  
• Delaware Valley Elementary’s ‘Cookie Share’
  
• December’s best at Delaware Valley Middle School
  
• Starting off reading at Shohola
  
• What follows is not my opinion. (Tony Splendora's usual riff raff returns)
  
• Girls deserved the recognition
  

Stunning negativity in "Stunning Negativity"

I want to assure board member Diane French and the community that I do not believe Nick Troiano or I or anyone else has second guessed the amount of work she and the other board members undertake. I think we all can agree we see the outcome of the work by her - and of course by many others, too - and we appreciate their efforts.

⇒ READ MORE

Mrs. French lays out a list of the board's accomplishments since last November, and I am unsure why she took this defensive approach. I do not think Troiano's letter at all attacked her or the other board members for what they have contributed over the past year. I sure have not. What I think Troiano and I and many many others have raised are concerns about how the vacancy was handled (one of which Judge Chelak agreed with yesterday) and concerns about the letter her fellow board member John Kupillas wrote in last week's newspapers and the "stunning negativity" it casts upon the very people that attend and have graduated from Delaware Valley.

I believe Mrs. French knows I am extremely grateful for the opportunity to have the phone interview on Oct. 2. While I believe it was within my rights to request it, I could not say enough that evening to express my gratitude to the board for accommodating me.

Unfortunately, I think Mrs. French may misunderstand my intentions. I fully agree with her that the position is "not a summer joke or a way to make headlines." I expressed complete sincerity to the board about this position, and I still am completely sincere in my intentions to offer Mrs. French and her fellow board members a helping hand and to give back to the community and school that raised me. I never once requested that the board adapt to fit into my schedule. In fact, I offered to take on extra work if I ever missed a meeting. I never once mentioned a "social agenda" nor did I say it would ever supersede board duties if I was selected.

I was indeed upfront and admitted I may not be able to make all of the meetings in the fall if selected. Ironically, the candidate Mrs. French backed instead, Bernard Marasa, is in Florida and will not be at this week's meeting, at which she planned to vote for his appointment.

If I do not exemplify the seriousness, the time commitment and the passion that Mrs. French writes are necessary to make our school district the best, I don't know who does.

I hope she realizes my intentions are sincere and in the best interest of her, the rest of the board, the taxpayers, students and their parents, and everyone in the community – and that my interest in the vacancy only demonstrates how thankful I am to the school district and how serious I am about giving back to it.


Quick fact checks:

• “... we kept our word and did not raise taxes or cut programs.”
  

True, taxes were not raised, though the zero tax increase was caused largely by increased state funding from the gambling money that Mrs. French mentions, which is more luck than action by the board. Whole programs have not been cut, though many budgets, both academic and co-curricular, have been under scrutiny and have been tightened, according to teachers and club advisers I’ve spoken to.

• “... we are working diligently to provide a better quality education for all students from special education to the advanced programs.”
  

A broad statement that is lacking justification. How have they worked diligently to provide better quality special education? The special education chair, John Wladar, has resigned. He did not attend a meeting nor hold a special education committee meeting for the past six months. When he was first appointed chair, Wladar did not know what an IEP was and wanted to discuss confidential special education student matters in public.
In the past year, the special education subgroup at DV High School failed to meet Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) on the state PSSA tests. On the other end of the spectrum, Mrs. French has publicly spoken out against increasing the number and enrollments of Advanced Placement classes.

• “These changes will have an impact on the improvement of SAT and PSSA scores ...”
  

This improvement has not yet been measured. The only indication available now is that since Taxpayers United claimed a board majority, DVHS has fallen onto the state’s warning list for low PSSA scores among special education students. No improvement so far.

• “A sex education program was developed because of the lack of a sufficient program for years.”
  

Only after a major public controversy arose over it. This action was not initiated by the Taxpayers United members and was unanimously agreed upon.

• “Finally, the water tower will be completed and plans have been started for the elementary school in Milford.”
  

The water on the Dingman Delaware campus has already been meeting all standards and the primary school well has been producing pristine water. On an opinionated note: The costly water tower has nothing to do with the quality of education. This may be nothing more than a huge, expensive water storage facility that the taxpayers are footing the bill for - with money that could have been used directly on education.

The previous board had already initiated the new elementary school plans on the Westfall campus in *Westfall. The current board has stalled on getting anything done and is backing a plan that requires the demolition of the administrative offices, the current elementary school, the playground and a practice athletic field. The construction will disrupt the educational process and consume field space and limited parking spaces on the campus. The final proposed building will not solve any of the serious safety and traffic problems caused by overcrowdedness on the main DV campus. The project will cost as much as or more than the previous board’s original plan, which included new land to build a safe, separate elementary school campus.

• "Sue Casey, the previous board president, suggested we take a poll as to whether we would have a consensus as to the candidate."
  

Is this an attempt to pass the buck? Bob Goldsack is the president now: Where was his leadership? Mrs. French went along with it, too, and now is publicly denouncing it.

Courier reports SAT improvement

Guidance chairperson Jay Tucker's presentation about SAT scores and other data about the graduating class was discussed in this week's Pike County Courier.

With Tucker’s method, the class of 2008 improved 17 points since the previous year, rising from 1505 to 1522. The guidance counselor further reported Delaware Valley is ranked 362 out of 500 Pennsylvania schools for per-pupil spending.  

Class of 2008 report: 84 percent seek higher ed

High school guidance chairperson Jay Tucker presented his annual report on the graduating class at the July 17 school board meeting. 

Of the 448 graduating students, 84 percent will be going on to institutions of higher education, the lowest percentage since 1999, though only by a few percent, according to the report. Local scholarships added up to $184,260 and students received $3,705,900 in scholarships from their colleges and other sources.

Doubling last year's number, 26 students will enter the military.

The class of 2008 improved SAT scores by 17 points from 1505 to 1522, according to Tucker, who uses the highest score in each section of the test to compute the average, rather than using the College Board's approach that only includes the latest assessment from each student. Colleges look at the highest score in each section from all of the times students take the SAT, Tucker said.

Of the 446 Advanced Placement enrollments in the 2007-08 school year, 71 percent received a passing score of 3 or higher on the five-point AP test scale. The national average is 57 percent. 

Among Delaware Valley's 22 AP course offerings, students in the two new courses in the 2007-08 school year performed extremely well: 100 percent of the AP Statistics students received a 3 or higher and 84 percent of the AP Government and Politics students received a 3 or higher, according to Tucker's PowerPoint slideshow.

A whopping 620 enrollments in AP classes are expected for the 2008-09 school year. That figure includes multiple enrollments by single students.

More information, including a list of colleges that students are attending, can be found in Tucker's report, which is available exclusively to download here. (2.4 MB .PDF file)

SATs over time

Here is a graph I made in the spring for a public policy studies class, when I was researching SAT scores at DV. It shows the average combined reading and math SAT scores for the nation and DV. 

The graph demonstrates there is neither a downward nor upward trend with DV's SAT scores; they just sort of zig zag. The only consistency to spot in the graph is that like many of the other school districts in the area, DV's average is below the national average.

DV's scores average lower because a higher percentage of students take the SATs at DV than at other schools, according to administrators and school board members. 

Whether or not the lower-than-average SAT scores are actually hurting students is debatable. Are students not being accepted to certain colleges they want to attend because their SAT scores are too low? Are students missing out on scholarships because their scores are a few points lower than the national average? It's difficult to pinpoint exactly what harm, if any, the lower-than-average SAT scores are doing to DV students.

Personally, I found that many other factors, including interviews, co-curricular activities and essays were more important to colleges in the admissions process. I feel there are many other much more important indicators of a successful person than the amount of points they earn filling in bubble sheets for a few hours on a Saturday morning. (And I have a lifelong goal of disbanding the "nonprofit" College Board, because they are ruining America.)

It's also strange to see lower-than-average scores when DV students are some of the top performers in the state on PSSAs, the state assessments. Hopefully the effort being put into driving up SAT scores is well spent and worth it.

In Times-Tribune's "Grading our Schools," DV falls short with SAT scores

Using the 2006-07 PSSA and SAT scores, the Times-Tribune analyzed 37 local northeast PA school districts in its Grading our Schools report.

Of the 37 school districts in Northeastern Pennsylvania, three districts — Delaware Valley, Dunmore and Wyoming Area — just missed exceeding the state averages, falling short only on the SATs.  

Delaware Valley is listed for achieving the highest scores of the 37 districts in the following areas on the PSSA:

• Third-grade math
  
• Third-grade reading
  
• Fourth-grade math
  
• Fourth-grade reading
  
• Fifth-grade math
  
• Sixth-grade reading
  
• 11th-grade math
  

And the second highest in the following areas: 

• Fifth-grade reading
  
• 11th-grade reading 
  
• 11th-grade writing
  

An interesting note about SATs at the bottom of the article:

Area school districts continue to perform below average on the SATs, compared to other districts in the state. Of the 37 local districts, only eight met or surpassed the state combined average of 992. The average Northeastern Pennsylvania combined score of the 37 districts is 959. Exceeding the state average were: Abington Heights, Crestwood, Dallas, Elk Lake, Montrose Area, Susquehanna Community, Wallenpaupack Area and Wayne Highlands. Only Abington Heights, Dallas and Elk Lake met or surpassed the national average of 1017. 

Links to other parts of the Grading our Schools feature:

DV's information page

Search for other schools

DV's PSSA scores

Search for other schools' PSSA scores

DV's listings in the Educators' Profile database