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City schools correct PSSA reading test results
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Pittsburgh Public Schools officials remain disappointed in state test scores, but high school reading results didn't drop as much as they first thought.
The district Thursday said that earlier this week it released the wrong 2012 preliminary scores for reading at six high schools -- Pittsburgh Allderdice in Squirrel Hill; Brashear in Beechview; Carrick; Langley in Sheraden; Oliver on the North Side; and Perry on the North Side -- as well as one 6-12 school, Pittsburgh Milliones, also known as University Prep, in the Hill District.
Langley and Oliver closed as high schools in June and reopened as a K-8 school and a special education school, respectively, this school year.
Chief of staff Lisa Fischetti said the problem was that the district inadvertently listed the 2012 math scores as reading scores.
The district's initial, incorrect results showed that six schools had double-digit drops in the percentage of students proficient or advanced in both math and reading, including Allderdice High School.
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However, the revised results show that Allderdice's drop in reading was 9.3 percentage points, from 77 percent proficient or advanced in 2011 to 67.7 percent in 2012. Thus, there are five schools with double-digit drops in both subjects.
Allderdice's math score remained at 53.5 percent proficient or advanced, a drop of 13.8 percentage points from 67.3 percent in 2011.
One other high school on the list with dramatic drops was Perry -- the initial report showed a drop of 30 percentage points in reading. The revised figures show a drop of 19.6 percentage points, from 52.4 percent proficient or advanced in reading in 2011 to 32.8 percent in 2012. Its math figure remains 22.4 percent proficient or advanced, a drop of 11.4 percentage points.
The figures remain the same for the other four schools with double-digit drops in both math and reading: Pittsburgh Concord PreK-5 in Carrick, Grandview K-5 in Allentown, Liberty K-5 in Shadyside and West Liberty K-5 in Brookline.
Other schools with revised reading scores are:
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• Milliones, from 36.3 percent proficient or advanced in 2011 to 34.1 percent in 2012, a decrease of 2.2 percentage points.
• Brashear, from 46.0 percent in 2011 to 50.2 percent in 2012, an increase of 4.2 percentage points.
• Carrick, from 57.8 percent in 2011 to 57.0, a drop of 0.8 percentage points.
• Langley, from 47.2 percent in 2011 to 39.3 percent, a drop of 7.9 percentage points.
• Oliver, from 31.8 percent in 2011 to 34.0 percent in 2012, an increase of 2.2 percentage points.
Except for Milliones, all of the drops are smaller than in the initially released results.
The results from the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment tests are used for helping to determine whether schools or districts made adequate yearly progress, known as AYP, under the federal No Child Left Behind Act.
The math and reading tests are given in grades 3-8 and grade 11.
The school district did not make AYP for 2012. Overall student performance on the state tests dropped for the first time in five years.
Statewide results are expected to be released later this month.
First Published September 14, 2012 12:51 am
