School District Gets High Marks … From Pittsburgh

Upper Dublin is a pretty good school district, says the people out in Pittsburgh.

“The Pittsburgh Business Times,” in its recently released “Western Pennsylvania 2013 School Guide,” dubbed Upper Dublin the 19^th-best top-scoring public school district in the state. To put things in perspective, there are over 500 school districts and charter schools in Pennsylvania. 

Superintendent Michael Pladus said he heard the news last week from a colleague at the Montgomery County Intermediate Unit. He added that school district administration had no contact with the publication. 

According to Pladus, the rankings are calculated by taking a rolling, three-year average of the PSSA scores for all students in grades three through eight and 11.

“The ‘Pittsburgh Business [Times]’ has been doing this for the last several years, and we have generally performed quite well so our top-20 ranking did not come as a surprise,” Pladus said. 

See the post here.

Pladus lauded his teachers and staff ... but said test scores aren’t everything.

“The high ranking is certainly an affirmation of the quality of the efforts of our faculty and staff, the quality of the students that we receive, and, of course, the high level of support from parents and the community. I think it’s important to note, however, that while the reputation of a school district can often rise or fall on the basis of test scores, the most important work that we do as teachers or as a school system can never be measured by any single test. The real final exam is in the lives of our students as they leave us, not only their test scores, but the young men and women that they have become.”

Upper Dublin actually dipped in the publication’s rankings for 2013 — last year it came in at 17. Pladus said he was actually a little disappointed about dropping two slots.

“Frankly, I was a little disappointed,” he said. “Interestingly, our SAT scores were up this past year, which placed us in the top ten in Pennsylvania, and I was hoping and expecting that our PSSA scores would follow suit. I guess we all just have to work a little harder and smarter this coming year.”

Montgomery County did rather well in the rankings this year. In addition to Upper Dublin, five other school districts finished in the top 25. They are: Lower Merion (9); Lower Moreland (17); Wissahickon (21); Jenkintown (22) and Colonial (25).

The best school district in the state, according to the data, is the Upper St. Clair School District, which is in Allegheny County. 

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On a related note, Pladus said the Upper Dublin School Board will hold a “major budget presentation” on Monday, April 22 at 6 p.m. at the high school. . Pladus wouldn't say how many teachers have accepted the deal so far, but added that they have until May 3 to decide.