When it comes to the state’s measures of academic success, Tyrone Area High School leads the pack of area high schools.

Taxpayers and parents can log on to the updated Pennsylvania Department of Education’s school performance profiles to see how their schools are performing.

The profiles include score values for the latest round of standardized tests, college aptitude tests, industry-based exams and other schoolwide data from the 2016-17 school year.

With an overall score of 95.2 on a scale exceeding 100, Tyrone High school’s score was head and shoulders above other schools in Blair County, which mostly scored in the 60s, except for Hollidaysburg Area’s score of 86.

Williamsburg Community Junior-Senior High School scored a 55.7, the lowest in the county.

There are two big factors affecting scores — wealth and size, according to Appalachia Intermediate Unit 8 Director Thomas Butler.

The agency serves as a liaison to the state for all public school districts in Blair, Cambria and Bedford counties.

“Those factors have nothing to do with how well teachers are teaching,” Butler said.

“Lower student population affects you because the smaller the school, the more just a few bad test scores can skew results. And more wealth usually leads to better scores, because of higher per-pupil spending,” Butler said.

However, Tyrone Area isn’t exactly rich or big.

Forty-four percent of its students are economically disadvantaged by the state’s standards. That’s a higher percentage than all schools in Blair County except for Altoona Area (57 percent) and Claysburg-Kimmel (53 percent).

Ranking in state high

Not only is Tyrone Area’s score high for Blair County, but it’s high for the state.

“You have to go to Fox Chapel or Nazareth to get a higher score; it’s amazing,” Tyrone High School Principal Thomas Yoder said. “Principals from other districts ask what we do because we have the same kind of population.”

The state determines a school’s Performance Profile score by designating a value to several performance measures including state assessment achievement and growth of students who didn’t test well the previous year.

For example, a maximum of 15 points of the overall score depends on the percentage of all students scoring proficient or advanced on the English language arts standardized tests. Math and science tests are given a weight of 7.5 points each.

Those tests are based on Pennsylvania Core Standards that are taught to students.

“If getting a high score were just on based on alignment to state standards and reviewing data, then I feel every school should have a high score. But I think there are intangible, immeasurable things that go on that get our scores so high,” Yoder said.

The first thing he mentioned was the school’s “project safeguard.”

“Once per week we sit down and review any student with two or more failing grades, attendance or discipline problems — social workers, counselors, deans and special education staff,” Yoder said. “As we talk about them, we come up with interventions. Maybe the school social worker needs to visit or maybe the student needs extra math help.”

Advisory period added

Yoder claims other innovations also set the school apart.

“For kids in danger of not graduating because of attendance, counselors call them in the morning to get them to school. Sometimes we give them a ride to school. The counselors are on a first-name basis with parents. Those two initiatives are things that help our at-risk kids,” Yoder said.

The district has a focus on transitioning students from middle school to high school at ninth grade.

“The transition to high school is difficult,” Yoder said. “Every first period every ninth-grader has an hourlong advisory period. If they are having trouble in any subject, they go to those teachers.”

The climate in school also helps performance, he said.

“We have a really positive climate where people feel respected,” he said. “We give opportunities to kids to meet with us and give us feedback. We have parent groups for that, too.”

And students feel the importance of academics, he said.

“Academics are held in high esteem here,” he said. “We don’t let people make announcements in middle of class period. We don’t have pep rallies every week. We send a message to kids that this stuff is really important. And we send that message to all kids, not just the high achievers.”

Technology helps

Technology plays a crucial role in delivering results.

“We have a technology coach; all subjects have an interactive white board, and we use a number of different activities to engage kids,” Yoder said. “Every student has a Chromebook computer provided by the district for the year.”

Through their individual computers, students practice Algebra 1 at their own pace. The software used includes a diagnostic tool to identify a student’s weak areas and provides practice problems.

“That technology piece is really important,” Yoder said.

Four of the county’s seven high schools scored in the 60s on the scale of 100-plus. Altoona Area High School scored a 62.

“A student achievement plan has been designed to focus on those areas of concern,” Altoona Area Community Relations Director Paula Foreman said.

Claysburg-Kimmel scored 65.3. Spring Cove School District’s Central High School scored a 62.4, and Bellwood-Antis High School scored a 65.6.

Williamsburg Community School District had the lowest score in the county at 55.7.

“We are not satisfied with our high school School Performance Profile,” Williamsburg Community Superintendent Lisa Murgas said. “Yes, it may be the lowest in the county, but Williamsburg also has the lowest high school student enrollment by nearly 200 students as well. Just a couple of low student test scores can significantly impact our profile.

“We continually analyze not only the profile data but also other assessment data and work to provide best instructional practices for students,” Murgas said. “We will analyze this new data and determine what changes need to be made.”

Entire score cards are available at Paschool

performance.org.

Mirror Staff Writer Russ O’Reilly is at 946-7435.

Grading the effort

High school academic scores throughout the area on a scale of greater than 100 to less than 60.

Blair County

Altoona Area: 62

Bellwood Antis: 65.6

Central: 62.4

Claysburg-Kimmel: 65.3

Hollidaysburg Area: 86

Tyrone Area: 95.2

Williamsburg Community: 55.7

Cambria County

Glendale: 64.2

Central Cambria: 78.3

Cambria Heights: 68.3

Portage Area: 69.7

Penn Cambria: 91.9

Northern Cambria: 77.4

Bedford County

Chestnut Ridge: 79.2

Everett Area: 79

Bedford Area: 86.5

Northern Bedford County: 73.9

Source: Paschoolperformance.org