SC H OO L DI ST RIC T News
rentwood Borough
Brentwood
Borough
School
District
On October 4, 2013, the Pennsylvania
Department of Education (PDE)
released its new Pennsylvania School
Performance Profile (SPP). Scheduled to
be unveiled on September 30, 2013, PDE
delayed the debut of SPP for several days
due to concerns expressed by school
districts regarding the accuracy of data
available on the SPP site. This public
site (http://www.paschoolperformance.
org) provides an academic performance
score for each public school throughout
the state. The performance score is
designed to: inform the public of school
performance; provide a building level
score for educators as part of their
evaluation system; allow the public to
compare schools across the state; and,
give schools a methodology to analyze
their strengths and needs.
Previously under No Child Left
Behind, public schools across the
commonwealth received designations
such as Made Adequate Yearly Progress,
Making Progress, Warning, School
Improvement, or Corrective Action.
These designations have been replaced
with an academic performance score
based upon various data points that
include: test scores; progress in closing
achievement gaps; the degree of
student academic growth over time;
graduation, promotion, and attendance
rates; and, evidence of rigorous course
offerings. The SPP scoring system is
based on 100 points. However, schools
50 Brentwood-Baldwin-Whitehall
S uperintendent ’ s
M essage
B y D r . R on D ufalla
may be awarded extra points for those
students earning advanced scores on the
PSSA assessments, Keystone Exams, or
Advanced Placement Exams.
In addition to the scoring aspect of
the SPP site, the public will also be able
to compare schools across the state
with one another. At the current time,
the comparison feature is not available,
but is expected to be fully functional by
January 2014.
The SPP site may be accessed at the
address noted above or on the school
district website at http:brentwoodpgh.
k12.pa.us. On the school district website,
there are two links on the home page
listed under News. The link PA School
Performance Profile will take you
directly to the SPP site. The link PA
School Performance Profile-Reference
Documents will provide you with a
variety of SPP information provided by
PDE.
According to the SPP, Elroy Elementary
earned an academic performance score
of 73.5, Moore Elementary a score of
80.3, and Brentwood Middle School a
score of 75.0. Due to corrections that
must be made in the end-of-course
designations for students that took
the Keystone Exams, the academic
performance score for Brentwood High
School has been suppressed and will not
be available until January 2014.
District administrators and staff are
currently reviewing the scores prior to
taking steps to improve those scores for
future years. If you have questions about
the SPP and the academic performance
score of your child’s school, please
contact the respective building principal
for additional information.
Ronald W. Dufalla, Ph. D.
Superintendent of Schools