Seven Gen Meets PSSA Goals

The scores recently released by the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment – PSSA – give preliminary information that in Emmaus has met its Adequate Yearly Progress measures for the 2010-11 school year.

“The school has performed well and appears to be on track to meet the goal of all students attaining proficiency in reading and math by the year 2014,” the report says.

However, it goes on to say that the school “may wish to review its improvement strategies and create an improvement plan” if it wants to continue to meet its AYP measures next year.

In reading, Seven Gen’s goal was to have 72 percent of students above proficiency level.

Overall, 66.4 percent of students achieved that proficiency, according to the test scores, just short of the school’s goal.

While the report also says 77.9 percent of the students in the “white non-Hispanic” demographic scored above the proficiency level, it does not give data for any other demographic that may have been the cause for the lower overall score.

Additionally, the 66.4 percent overall score was a 7.7 percent increase from last year, which allowed the school to attain its AYP in reading because it had achieved a “confidence interval.”

“Confidence intervals take into account the fact that the students tested in any particular year might not be representative of students in that school across the years. Confidence intervals control for this sampling error or variation across years by promoting schools or subgroups that come very close to achieving their performance goals, thus meeting their specific goal,” the report said.

In math, Seven Gen’s goal was to have 67 percent of students at or above proficiency level.

Overall, 67.2 percent of students achieved that goal, a 4.2 percent increase over last year.