TESTING, TESTING: OJR Aims for Higher Scores

Photos by Evan Brandt

Dennis Fletcher, Owen J. Roberts High School math teacher, talks to the school board Monday night about the district's Keystone scores in algebra.

Headed to the Owen J. Roberts workshop meeting Monday because, sadly, it was the most interesting agenda out there.

And considering how uninteresting the meeting was, that's saying something.

Perhaps the most significant item had to do with the new $28 million East Coventry Elementary School, or perhaps more importantly, what comes next.

As it turns out, that building is the last item on a capital improvements plan from several years ago, and that means its time for a new one, and a feasibility study to help determine costs.

Although a committee has already been formed -- comprised of staff, school board members, parents and administrators -- the meetings are not open to the public.

But one meeting is, and it will be a Town Hall meeting held Nov. 1 at Owen J. Roberts High School. Other public meetings may be scheduled, but as of now, this will be the general public's only chance to have input.

Other than that, the bulk of the meeting was consumed by talking about the district's standardized test scores -- the PSSA, the Keystone and Advance Placement. They're all awfully good, but of course, they would like to make them better.

You can read all about that in the Tweets below:

Testing, testing

Two New Sports, PSSA Results in Pottsgrove

Photo by Evan Brandt

Perhaps it was appropriate that Ringing Rocks second graders demonstrated their expertise with Xtra Math during Tuesday's Pottsgrove School Board meeting given that the board spent most of the meeting discussing the districts math PSSA scores.

In a rather splendid example of educational synchronicity, second graders from Ringing Rocks kicked off Tuesday's school board meeting by showing how they are using a program called Xtra Math to create a strong foundation for mathematics.

Then, after the students headed home to their beds, the school board spend the better part of two hours reviewing the district's PSSA, Keystone and AP test statistics.

Some may recall that the PSSA was reset last year, so this is the first year since then that a comparison of the most recent scores with the previous years is relevant.

What the latest results showed, in general terms, is that English scores are "stagnant" and math scores need some work, said Daniel Vorhis, the district's director of curriculum and instruction.

The board also agreed to hire an instructional coach that was included in the budget, and to add two new sports to Pottsgrove's line up.

With a unanimous vote, the board added bowling and girls volleyball to the athletic line-up.

Here are the Tweets from the meeting ....