While Pleasant Valley School District's math scores have generally increased during the past year, further work is needed to ensure a good education for the students.

Pleasant Valley mathematics supervisor Shavonne Liddic presented the department's end of the year report at the school board meeting on Thursday.While most grades either met or exceeded the benchmark, some scores indicate that further work is required for increased progress.Liddic's presentation showed promising results for classes in kindergarten through second grade, which uses a curriculum called "Go Math!" The end of the year progress report ranks students in one of four categories - below basic, basic, proficient and advanced.Kindergarten testing showed 98 percent of the students were ranked proficient or higher, with a huge decrease in basic and below basic categories. First-grade testing showed similar results, with 84 percent of math classes ranking students as proficient or advanced. Students in second-grade classes displayed an 83 percent score of proficient or greater.Math classes from third grade to geometry measured their progress through Classroom Diagnostic Tools, an online testing platform. This method categorizes the students as red (not proficient), green (proficient) or blue (advanced).Although the beginning of the year statistics appear rather bleak - 95 percent of algebra 2 classes scored in the red category - end of the year evaluations for all classes showed improvement. The majority of students from third to sixth grade ended up testing proficient or higher, but issues become apparent from there on up.Students in algebra 1 and algebra 2 classes largely ranked as not proficient at the end of the year (57 percent and 69 percent, respectively). The main problem appears to lie with helping students apply their basic math education to more complicated concepts in higher-level classes."Our biggest issues are getting our students to problem-solve on their own. Because it's no longer about basic skills, it's all about using those skills in an actual problem-solving basis. So it's transferring that knowledge," Liddic said.With help from Paul J. Riccomini,the math department of Pleasant Valley Intermediate began working on new teaching strategies this past year.Riccomini, the associate professor of education (special education) and professor in charge, SPLED at Penn State University - specializes in "effective instructional approaches, strategies and assessments for students who are low achievers and students with learning disabilities in mathematics."Riccomini has introduced the math department at Pleasant Valley Intermediate to "content scaffolding," where the students receive support throughout the learning process that lets them build up their knowledge in a progressive manner. The program will eventually be applied to the rest of the district's math departments as well.Content scaffolding can involve techniques like "pre-teaching vocabulary," where the students are taught about relevant terms with pictures, association with their outside interests, and more. This could allow students to have a better grasp of concepts that can be applied to more difficult problems in math courses."If (the students) have no idea what the word means, they can't do the problem," Liddic stated.With the application of Riccomini's teachings and the math department's determined nature, the district is looking forward to an upswing in math proficiency scores.As Liddic said, "Once we get that stuff situated, I think our scores will go up. So, we're slowly starting to enhance."