Assistant to the superintendent Kenneth Newman presented a breakdown of the recent PSSA scores for the third through eighth grades at Thursday evening's school board meeting.

Newman broke down the English language arts score and the math assessment scores first as they related to the state averages and then to how they related to other Monroe County school districts.The new tests are based on the state core requirements, which were introduced into the curriculum in the past one to two years based on the grade level.Students from fourth through eighth grade were taught from curriculums which were geared toward the state standardized tests.It has already been widely reported that students throughout the state scored at much lower proficiency rates on the core requirements tests than the previous standardized test."I wish they had renamed the new test," Newman said. "I think it would have been less confusing to people."As expected, Pleasant Valley students did record scores that were lower than the PSSA scores in the past. The scores are reported as the level of proficiency.Pleasant Valley scored above the state average on the English language arts portion of the test in third, sixth, seventh and eighth grades for regular needs students and above the state average in all grades for the historically underperforming students. The historically underperforming students are made up of students with special physical or educational needs, students from economically disadvantaged households and students who have language barriers.The district's students performed above the state average in the math assessment for third, sixth and eighth grades. Fourth grade was the same as the state average. The historically disadvantaged students scored above the state average in all but fifth grade.Newman said traditionally Pleasant Valley has noticed that the fifth-graders seem to struggle more. He said steps are being taken to look into how the staff can address the problem.Newman said one way is the math professional development program that has been implemented this year with the hiring of Paul Riccomini.Newman said the new math assessment requires the introduction of word problems much earlier in math than previously and how traditionally the word problems were not focused on. Newman said that will be changed and students will need to become more proficient in reading, comprehending and then working out word-based math problems to succeed on the new tests.Newman provided information which showed Pleasant Valley scores in comparison to Pocono Mountain, East Stroudsburg Area and Stroudsburg school districts.In English language arts, Pleasant Valley scored highest in sixth grade. The district scored second highest in third, fourth and seventh grades.In the math assessment, Pleasant Valley scored highest in third, sixth, seventh and eighth grades, but lowest in fifth grade.Superintendent Carole Geary said they presented the comparison to other schools in the county, because that is what the board usually asks to see."I believe that it is important to recognize that these schools are very different," Geary said. "It would make more sense to look at other schools that have similar demographics."