HARRISBURG - The launch date for the Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) School Performance Profile (SPP) was moved from Monday to Friday, Oct. 4.
Central Susquehanna Intermediate Unit (CSIU) public relations manager Jennifer Spotts said she did not know why the date was delayed, but guessed it had something do with school districts being given the opportunity to review their data so they can recheck the elements before it goes public.
Spotts was part of a media conference Wednesday at the CSIU in Milton where chief academic officer Amy C. Morton explained how the new grading system will work.
The SPP will provide educators, parents and the public with comprehensive evaluations of each building in the districts based on academic achievement, academic growth and other factors associated with public education.
The new profiles replace the previous standard known as AYP, or adequate yearly progress, which was based solely on student math and reading scores. Pennsylvania is no longer required to use that benchmark since receiving a waiver from the federal No Child Left Behind law.
Each district will be given a score between zero and 100. The evaluation score will be made up of 40 percent academic achievement, 5 percent achievement gap in all students, 5 percent achievement gap in historically under performing students, 40 percent in academic growth and 10 percent other academic indicators.
Approximately 90 percent of the data, which was provided to the state by the school districts, will be based on 2012-13 school year test scores while other data such as graduation and attendance rates will be based on the 2011-12 school year.
Scores for all 3,200 traditional, charter, cyber and technical schools in the state will be available online beginning Friday, Oct. 4, at www.pde.state.pa.us.