A MESSAGE FROM
Dr. William Henderson, Assistant Superintendent
West Jefferson Hills Community:
While many of our families, and especially our students, have started to look forward to the warmer days of spring and the final months of the 2024-2025 school year, West Jefferson Hills educators have spent the past few months reviewing recently released data about our students’ academic performance during the 2023-2024 school year. We recognize that assessment results are not the sole measure of the effectiveness of a school district’ s educational offerings. They do, however, provide us with valuable data that can be compared to previous school years while planning for future years.
Some of the highlights from the recently released information include:
• Thomas Jefferson High School had the fourth highest Act 13 score among Allegheny County high schools. When Act 13 became law in March 2020, the process used to evaluate a school’ s educators was revised with the goal to improve student achievement by focusing on educator effectiveness. Classroom teachers, non-teaching professionals, and principals are scored for accountability and to provide feedback. TJ’ s score of 86.3 was only behind Mt. Lebanon’ s 93.4, Pine Richland’ s 92.3, and Fox Chapel’ s 89.1.
• The English department at Thomas Jefferson High School was the highest growing English department among the state’ s more than 600 high schools.
• Nearly 81 % of AP students at Thomas Jefferson High School scored a 3 or better on an AP exam. That is the highest percentage in four years and represents a nearly 14 % increase from the 2021-2022 school year.
• High school students continue to show remarkable growth on the Keystone literature and biology exams, while significantly increasing growth on the Algebra I exam over the past three school years.
• Pleasant Hills Middle School sixth and seventh grade students have shown year-over-year improvement in English Language Arts while continuing to significantly outpace the state averages.
• Advanced and proficient scores in fourth grade reading significantly spiked at Jefferson Hills Intermediate School.
Student enrollment also continues to increase sharply, with a more than 3 % increase since last school year. Additionally, the percentage of students who meet“ economically disadvantaged” thresholds has risen. In 2018-2019, that number was around 20 % of district enrollment. Last school year, it was nearly 30 % of the district’ s enrollment.
The West Jefferson Hills School District continues to put students first and will make every decision with their best educational interests in mind. Throughout the spring and summer, we will continue to develop and deploy action plans, aimed at continuing and expanding academic achievement and growth.
Sincerely, Dr. William Henderson Assistant Superintendent West Jefferson Hills School District
est Jefferson Hills WEST JEFFERSON HILLS SCHOOL DISTRICT NEWS
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