If Camp Hill High School students can’t make the grade, who can?
This is the district that twice was named one of the nation’s top high schools by U.S. News & World Report, whose students consistently rank in the top tier on all kinds of tests and where nearly 90 percent go on to higher education.
Yet, last year’s 11th graders did not score high enough collectively on the PSSA math test to make Adequate Yearly Progress, according to scores recently released by the district.
It’s not that they did worse than the previous year’s students. They scored the same — 68 percent were proficient or better on their tests. But the target has moved. In 2011-’12, 78 percent had to make the grade in math, compared to only 63 percent the year before.
And districts are rapidly reaching the point in 2014 when all students will have to be proficient, which means, almost by definition, that all schools will fail.
Many area districts have not yet revealed this years’ scores. The state Department of Education won’t list them for another month.
But across central Pennsylvania, even some schools with top reputations are now struggling to meet the state’s higher benchmarks.
Click here to read the full article by Monica Von Dobeneck published in the Patriot News (August 27, 2012)
