State Board of Education

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State Board of Education
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Presentation at PARSS Annual Meeting

• Background on State Board authority, composition
  and membership
• Update on current activities, policies and
  regulations
• PSSA Validity Study

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AuthorityArticle XXVI-B School Code

• Adopt regulations, standards policies to govern
  education in Pennsylvania
• Master Plans for basic and higher education
• Approves changes in school district boundaries
• Approves expansion of colleges/universities
• Conduct studies make recommendations on
  educational policy

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State BoardMembership/Structure

• 21 voting members
• Nominated by Gov./Senate confirms
• 6 year staggered terms
• 4 Legislative members chairs of Ed Com.
• State Board Chair selected by Governor
• Secretary of Education is Board CEO

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State Board Meetings

• Holds 2-day meetings six times each year
• Usually 3rd Wed. Thurs. of month
• Jan., March, May, July, Sept. Nov.
• Meetings open to the public
• Public comment period
• Info on PDE web page

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State Board Structure

• Work conducted through standing
• special committees
• Council of Basic Education
• Council of Higher Education
• State Board for Vocational Education

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Regulatory Agenda

• Chapter 49 Certification of Prof. Personnel
• 2 sets of changes in process
• Final form regulations
• New proposal
• Chapter 4 Academic Standards Assessment
• Early Childhood Education
• Career Education Work Academic Standards
• Chapters 31, 36 40 Higher Education

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Chapter 4Academic Standards Assessment

• Remove outdated transitional provisions
• Align regulations with State Unified
  Accountability Plan under NCLB
• Clarify intent of Board on selected issues
• Update/revise policies in select areas

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Chapter 4 - Issues

• Strategic Planning
• State Assessment
• World Language
• Local Assessments HS Graduation
• HIV/AIDs Instruction

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Statewide Disparity

• 2004 H.S. Graduates 123,473
• Number Percent Number Percent
• Prof/Adv Prof/Adv Not Prof Gap
• Reading 79,850 64 43,623 35.3
• Writing 91,580 73 31,893 25.8
• Math 65,910 53 57,563 46.6

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Discrepancy Between Number of Graduates PSSA
Proficiency

• Math Reading
• SDs with gt60 69 30
• SDs with 50-59 71 20
• SDs with 40-49 132 67
• SDs with 30-39 126 129
• SDs with 20-29 92 142
• SD with lt20 44 146
• Numbers include Districts and Charter Schools
  with a graduating class

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Chapter 49Certification of Professional
Personnel-Final Stage

• Aligns regulations with Highly Qualified teacher
  requirements of NCLB
• Establishes Endorsements on Certificates that
  recognize specialized skills
• Permits use of professionals in the arts to
  provide limited instruction in schools for the
  arts

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Chapter 49 continued

• Address Early Childhood and highly qualified
  requirements under NCLB and IDEIA

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Early Childhood Regulations

• Address early childhood (pre-K) issues in
  Chapters 4, 11 12
• Establishes standards for pre-K programs
• Teacher teacher aide qualifications
• Staff Student ratio
• Linkages with community programs

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Chapters 31, 36, 40 42Higher Education

• Chapter 31 General Provisions
• On-line instruction
• For-profit institutions
• Staffing
• Endowments
• Chapter 36 Foreign Corporation Standards
• Chapter 40 Institutional Approval
• Chapter 42 Program Approval

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Future Issues

• NCLB Highly Qualified Teachers
• Address new IDEIA requirements in Chapter 14
• Teacher Quality Study
• Gov. Commission on College Career Success
• Gov. Commission on Preparing Americas Teachers

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Purpose of PSSA

• Provide students, parents, educators and citizens
  with an understanding of student and school
  performance
• 22 Pa Code 4.51(a)(1)

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Purpose of PSSA

• Determine the degree to which school programs
  enable students to attain proficiency of academic
  standards in reading, writing and mathematics.

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2004 HumRRO Study

• Whether PSSA adequately measures academic content
  specified by state standards?
• Are PSSA tests internally consistent and
  replicable?
• Do PSSA results correlate with results of other
  tests?
• Were methods used to establish performance level
  cut scores reasonable and technically correct?

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2005 HumRRO Study

• Compare PSSA results with university placement
  exams, SAT scores, English and math course
  enrollments and first-year grades at 3 selective
  Pennsylvania universities.

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Study Highlights

• Multiple choice items identify best at lower and
  middle of the scale
• Performance-task items identify best across the
  full scale
• PSSA has high internal consistency reliability
• Convergent validity coefficients same
  year-to-year
• PSSA scores correlate positively with students
  self-reported H.S. GPA

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Study Highlights

• PSSA very highly correlated on both student and
  school level for norm-referenced tests
• CTBS/Terra Nova, CAT-5 NSRE
• 0.8 math 0.7 reading
• PSSA even more highly correlated with tests
  designed to predict future student performance
• SAT, NWEA
• 0.9 math 0.8 reading

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Study Highlights

• Schools that improve PSSA scores tend to also
  improve their SAT scores ( vice versa)
• Differences in scores related to gender, income
  level and ethnicity were similar for PSSA and all
  comparison tests

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Study Highlights

• About 75 of students planning to go to college
  score Proficient or Advanced on PSSA
• Vast majority of students who score
  Proficient/Advanced on PSSA take credit-bearing
  English and math classes as college freshman

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Study Highlights

• PSSA same predictive validity as 3 university
  placement tests in both English and math
• Students who did not score Proficient on PSSA but
  admitted/enrolled at 3 selective universities
  scored very near the Proficient cut score on the
  PSSA

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Study Highlights

• All these data provide strong evidence in support
  of the PSSA as a valid measure of student
  achievement.

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Questions Discussion
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Additional Information

• State Board of Education
• 717-787-3787
• www.state.pa.us
• 00statbd_at_psupen.psu.edu