Several South Williamsport School District parents voiced concerns after they received a letter informing them that PSSA and/or Keystone Test results at the Junior/Senior High School were within the bottom 15% based on combined math and reading scores in statewide assessments.

The letter also made parents aware of an Opportunity Scholarship Tax Credit Program, allowing them to place their student in another accepting school district should they choose to do so.

“Please know that the staff at South Williamsport Junior/Senior High School has a relationship with your child and wants to continue serving your child,” the letter read.

While thanking the board for their service, and acknowledging the recent retirements of several long-term teachers, resident Scott Weisel implored the board to look further into the performance of the students.

“It doesn’t seem like that’s going to be the sole factor, because it looks like the problem is a high school issue,” said Fonda Nevel referencing the retired teachers, many of whom came from the elementary school.

Nevel added that having been in the district for three years, she never felt the curriculum was up to her standards, and was shocked to learn other parents did not hold the same opinion.

“I would be very interested to see what the plan is moving forward to enrich our curriculum,” she said.

“This is not a minor concern. It represents a serious academic failure that demands immediate attention,” resident Dustin Isenberg said in a prepared statement.

It has been nearly a decade since a school in Lycoming County has fallen in the bottom 15% and unfortunately, the last school to do it was within our district as well,” he said, adding that many of the schools on the list are from urban areas.

Isenberg questioned why this finding was not included on the agenda as a discussion item, surmising that had the district been in the top 15, it would have been acknowledged.

“When a district falls to the bottom 15%, the community deserves to know who’s responsible for diagnosing the problem and leading the correction,” he said, asking for a public review of all assessments meant to benchmark student progress.

“In elementary school, an extensive amount of their education is based on passing these tests. I don’t know if that changes in high school,” said Katie Caputo Noll.

“I have less hope that when my children get to the high school, that it’s going to be more enriching, more challenging and better,” she added.

“I love this community. I grew up here. My husband, I bought a house here. We chose to raise our children here. I want it to be the best in the area, and I know it can be. I hope you’re looking internally at what you can do to solve this problem,” Caputo Noll said.

“My husband grew up in a different district, and after receiving the letter, he said, ‘we might need to move.’ We want what’s best for our children,” she said.

Superintendent Dr. Briggs stressed that as soon as receiving word of the school’s standings, the district’s administrative team met to put together an action plan, including personally reaching out to other area school districts for guidance in certain areas related to the two tests.

“We think we’ve already found some root causes and some changes that we’re going to look to do as we move forward,” Briggs said.

“I would remind you, as I remind anybody in the community, this is one marker on which we’re evaluated. There’s more that goes into the impact that we leave on students outside of statewide testing. Nonetheless, we need to be diligent about what we’re doing. We’ll work through this, and I’m confident as we move forward, we’ll be able to make adjustments and make things better for our students,” he said.

The need for a balanced response was a challenge Briggs said the school is willing to face.

“When we go to make changes within the system, should we make the change based on the fact that kids are going to perform better on a statewide test, or do what we feel is in the best interest of students,” he said, while noting that testing can be one great indicator of that.

“Obviously, we want to improve our test scores, but at the end of the day, how do we do that and still maintain the integrity of the programs,” Briggs asked aloud.

“One of the big changes is that it used to be required that every student had to pass every Keystone exam. They realized that that was an unattainable goal, so they created career pathways,” he explained, adding that there are now five pathways a student can take to reach graduation.

The pathways include: proficiency on all three Keystone exams; a composite pathway, whereby the student earns a combined score of 4452 on all three Keystone exams, with at least one score registering proficient, and none below the basic level; the Career & Technical Education (CTE) Concentrator pathway, which requires the student to pass all courses associated with the Keystone exams, along with achieving industry-based competency certification; an alternate assessment pathway, which requires students to pass local requirements for Keystone courses and achieve specific scores on an assessment, such as the SAT, PSAT, ACT, or ASVAB or pass AP/IB/concurrent courses; and the evidence-based pathway, whereby students must pass local requirements for Keystone courses and provide three additional pieces of evidence, such as ACT WorkKeys (Silver), college acceptance, or community service.

Roughly 30 to 40% of the district’s students graduate through a composite path or the PSSA passway, Briggs said.

Asked by Board member Dr. Summer Bukeavich if specific information related to possible root causes could be presented at a future meeting, Briggs acknowledged that he planned to do so.

“Hopefully at the April board meeting, I plan to go over PSSA historical scores. And I also think it’s important to understand the graduation pathways,” he said.

Other information presented to the board may include recent Acadience and Firefly data and historical CDT classroom diagnostics.

“Of the few things during my tenure that I’ve lost sleep over, this is one of them,” said board President Todd Engel.

“But it wasn’t that long ago where our numbers were as good, if not better than a lot of other districts around here, so we’re doing something right,” he said.

“I trust that the administration and the principals and staff will get to the bottom of this. I don’t want to make a knee jerk reaction to one score, but certainly we’re well aware that’s out there,” Engel said.