Abington, union spar on PVAAS
CLARKS SUMMIT - Superintendent Michael Mahon, Ph.D., argued with the head of the teachers union over the effectiveness of a statewide assessment system that showed students at Abington Heights haven't progressed as expected.
At Wednesday night's school board meeting, Abington Heights Education Association President Jim Maria said the state's value-added assessment system, or PVAAS, "is inaccurate at best and a disservice at worst" when used as an indicator of how well the district is performing.
The assessment system compiles scores from individual students' past Pennsylvania System of School Assessment tests and sets a growth standard, or an expected year's worth of growth.
Mr. Maria's remarks come two weeks after Assistant Superintendent Thomas Quinn, Ph.D., announced that according to the assessment system, the majority of 11th-grade students have not progressed as expected.
At a previous meeting, Dr. Mahon shared his concern over the "very, very poor" growth scores among 11th-graders, a trend that has continued for several years, he said.
On Wednesday, Dr. Mahon didn't back off his original statements and scoffed at Mr. Maria's arguments that the assessment system isn't a valid way to judge growth.
"PVAAS has been around in some form or another since the early '80s, and while it isn't perfect, it truly is the best statistical model we have available today to measure large-scale issues," Dr. Mahon said.
Mr. Maria responded that he isn't completely discarding the results, he just thinks that the PVAAS "is not an accurate reflection" of what goes on at Abington Heights.
Either way, Dr. Mahon said several administrators, including himself, have been sitting in various classes at the high school to see if they can identify a pattern that may be contributing to the poor growth scores.
Also at Wednesday's meeting, board member Warren Acker said there has been some issues with Newton-Ransom Elementary School's roof. He said the district has since made repairs, but added that, eventually, the whole roof may need to be replaced - a project that he said could cost as much as $2.5 million.
Money to replace the roof would likely come from the district's capital reserves, he added.
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