The state Department of Education has notified the Pleasant Valley School District that its students with disabilities at the high school and middle school are not meeting the proficiency levels needed to be successful after graduation. This places the school district in a new program for Targeted Support and Improvement and requires the district to make changes to increase the success of these students.

“TSI functions as an early warning system to the school district of at-risk students’ groups,” said Matthew Triolo, the principal of the high school, to the school board directors at their meeting on March 12.

He said this new program is a response to the federal government’s Every Student Succeeds Act and stems from the state’s ESSA Consolidated State Plan and Future Ready Index, which compiles data from the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment exams and the Keystone exams.

After researching the test data, the DOE identified specific subgroups for assistance. The school district received notification late last fall that they were added to the Targeted Support Improvement designation.

Triolo said this category is the least intrusive by the state and permits the schools to draft changes on their own, then seek approval for it by their school boards. The category with the most state supervision is the Comprehensive Support and Improvement designation, followed by Additional Targeted and Support Improvement.

For Pleasant Valley, the TSI designation is specifically for students with disabilities in math and English language arts at the high school. At the middle school, it involves math and English language arts for students with disabilities and economically disadvantaged students, he said.

These students may have a specific learning disability that affects their ability to read, write, reason or do math, as well as other learning disabilities, Triolo said. Each of these students receive an individualized education plan. IEPs outline specific instructions to help the students succeed.

Triolo told the school board that intervention was determined on whether or not a subgroup fell into one of four profiles that looked at proficiency on the tests and future growth. If for instance, the subgroup showed an achievement level of greater than 35.6 percent, but less than 48.4 percent and had evidence of not meeting the future growth index either moderately or significantly, then the subgroup is a candidate for TSI.

Jason Van Voorhis, the principal of the middle school, said, “The state digs deeper then. They actually try to find areas where your subgroups may have been deficient.”

The state make a decision based on if the subgroup is below the cut scores for graduation rate, English language proficiency, regular attendance, and career standards benchmark.

“If you’re below these cut scores, they’re going to identify not only these subgroups as being a TSI designation, but also in these areas where you’re seen to be deficient,” he said.

The two principals decided to use the template provided for schools with the A-TSI designation, because a template doesn’t exist for schools with the less intrusive TSI designation, Van Voorhis said.

“This is a 27-page - without being filled in - comprehensive document to really look at not just where we’re deficient, but how we can put in action plans; what we can do that is going to be research based,” he said. “It’s a very in-depth packet that we are going to work with within our groups, in our schools, so our teachers and everyone else know we can make sure we are doing this the right way the first time.”

School Board President Donna Yozwiak asked them how they were going to evaluate the success of their new plan.

Van Voorhis said the data from the future achievement tests and growth index will be an indicator.

“The state recognizes that for real change to happen; it takes more than one year,” he said. “It’s more of a two- to three-year plan to make sure we are moving in the right direction with the steps we have in place.”

School board Director Susan Kresge asked when the document will be completed and come before the school board for approval.

Triolo said they plan to have it completed by the end of the school year and before the board in June or July. The state requires that the changes be implemented for the 2020-21 school year.