Last year, Pottsville Area Superintendent Jeffrey S. Zwiebel wasn't sure his school district would ever make the grade again.
In 2003, the state Department of Education established accountability standards with the same end goal as the federal No Child Left Behind program, to have 100 percent of students in the state proficient or above in reading and math by the year 2014.
By 2009, Pottsville Area wasn't able to meet the required Adequate Yearly Progress. And since then, it hadn't.
"The standards were only based on math and reading proficiency on the PSSA tests. At first, making AYP was easy. But every year, they raised the bar for proficiency. Soon it was like pole vaulting," Tiffany Reedy, principal of Pottsville Area High School, said Friday.
"The last time we made AYP was the 2008-2009 school year. They kept raising the proficiency rate each year. In the process, more and more districts were failing to meet those goals. And eventually you realized the system wasn't working," Zwiebel said.
This year, after a decade of putting dread into the hearts of educators across the state, AYP is gone and the state has replaced it with a new accountability system, "The School Performance Profile."
AYP levels were based on attendance, graduation rates, participation in PSSA math and reading tests and performance on those tests.
According to Tim Eller, press secretary for the state Department of Education, there are a few reasons why it was changed.
"Designed to serve three purposes, the School Performance Profile will be used for federal accountability for Title I schools under the state's approved federal No Child Left Behind waiver, the new teacher and principal evaluation system that was signed into law in 2012 and to provide the public with information on how public schools across Pennsylvania are academically performing," according to the department's website at portal.state.pa.us.
It takes into account numerous factors. Eller provided a two-page list of them Monday. They include PSSA/Keystone Exam scores; math, reading, science and writing scores; attendance and graduation rates.
Reedy, Zwiebel, Stephanie Ziegmont, Pottsville Area's curriculum coordinator, and Dr. Robert L. Urzillo, the superintendent of Blue Mountain School District, prefer the new system.
Blue Mountain School District has always made AYP, Urzillo said.
"We always did well, but I prefer the new system. It's a more global view of how well a school district, and a school building, is doing," Urzillo said Monday.
"While it's still based on proficiency, it takes a lot more into account. Before it was based on math and reading. Now it includes science and writing," Ziegmont said.
"I think the new system will be more thorough, obviously, because it takes into account more subjects," Ben Serano, a Pottsville Area senior, said Friday.
"And I like it better because it measures improvement," Urzillo said.
The new system grades each of a district's individual schools on a scale of zero to 100, Reedy said.
In September, the state gave Pottsville Area's schools the following grades: John S. Clarke Elementary, 74.5; D.H.H. Lengel Middle School, 63.2; and Pottsville Area High School, 72.
"That makes me feel kind of proud. The high school's in the green," Serano said.
Zwiebel said the district is encouraging its middle school to do better.
In September, the state gave Blue Mountain's schools the following grades: Elementary Cressona, 87.7; Elementary East, 89; Elementary West, 88.2; Middle School, 80.1; and Blue Mountain High School, 82.1.
The state strongly recommends each school strive for grade 70 or above.
"If your school is above 70, you're in the green," Reedy said.
"They say 70 and up is satisfactory," Ziegmont said.
While some students won't care about state standards, others pay attention, said Kasie Shaw, a Pottsville Area sophomore.
"If they care about what they want to do with their future, if they're raised in a household where they're taught they need to have something good for their future, I think they'll care about it more," Shaw said.
The state Department of Education offers insights into public schools at http://paschoolperformance.org.