Centennial Schools Meeting Or Exceeding State Growth Targets

WARMINSTER, PA —Five of the six schools in the Centennial School District are meeting or exceeding state growth targets, school officials said.

Schools Superintendent Dana Bedden updated the school board at Tuesday night's school board meeting about where the district stands regarding recently released 2022-2023 PA Department of Education Future Ready Index results.

One of Centennial School District's approved goals is “to have all schools annually meet or exceed all of the statewide average(s) or growth expectations outlined in the PA Future Ready Index.”

Over the past several years, Bedden said the Centennial School District has embarked on "significant changes" that have included but are not limited to changing the district calendar to allow for more instructional days before the state assessments, implementing a new data warehouse to support data-driven decision-making, aligning the core academic programs to the PA Common Core Standards, utilizing local-level diagnostic assessments, providing robust professional learning focused on the Science of Reading, investing in human capital, which includes instructional coaches, specialists, and coordinators.

The Nov. 8 findings show that five of the six schools meet or exceed the state growth targets, Bedden said.

Overall, the school district results showed:

• 89 percent of the growth measures met or exceeded the standard and demonstrated growth.
• 61 percent of the growth measures exceeded the standard and demonstrated growth.

According to PDE and the PVAAS information, growth equals current achievement compared to
all prior year achievements.

During the meeting, Bedden stated that while these results show "very positive student outcomes as a result of the changes that have been occurring," PDE provides some caution because “instructional delivery, student participation, school staffing, and pupil transportation were impacted to varying degrees during and after the pandemic.

"Due to the exemptions issued to students when exams were waived in 2019-20, schools may display an insufficient sample or a substantial or unusual change in assessment proficiency. These
waivers will impact numbers for reporting through at least 2024,” the PDE report stated.

“We are pleased to see these positive results and celebrate the progress our students and staff are making toward improving our student outcomes," Bedden said. "We recognize the importance of demonstrating growth each year, ultimately leading to improved achievement."

The superintendent said that while the district has a "significant focus" on growth, it is also monitoring achievement results compared to the statewide interim goal/improvement targets.

Bedden said the Centennial School District had 56 percent of the achievement scores above the statewide average.

"We are on a journey to a good, better, and the best version of ourselves. Our focus communicated this year during conversation is fidelity with flexibility using the definition articulated by Dr. Clay
Cook from the University of Minnesota, who said, 'Think of fidelity as defining the lanes or
boundaries of professional practice, we are trying to stay within, while flexibility is what we do
with those practices to bring the practices to life in an engaging and equitable way,'” the superintendent said.