Education Summit preview: James Testerman

We asked participants in "State of the Schools: A Countywide Education Summit" to respond to three questions about our schools, and we've been sharing their responses on Mondays for the past six weeks. These are the questions we posed:

• What’s the biggest challenge confronting public education in York County today?
• What can the community in York County realistically expect to achieve to deal with that challenge?
• What would your first priority for action be?

 Today, in the final installment, we hear from James Testerman, president of the Pennsylvania State Education Association.

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York County is a wonderful, diverse region with strong rural, suburban and urban communities. These communities support schools that are performing very well. For instance, in my school district, Central York, 87 percent of the students who took the PSSA in math in 2010 scored proficient or above on the test. Only 4.6 percent scored below basic. Students had similar results in reading—over 82 percent scored proficient or advanced.

Southern York, York Suburban and other York County districts had similar results. Students in these districts also successfully completed college credits while in high school; performed in music programs and competed in sports; learned world languages; earned certificates to pursue a technical career; and were admitted to college.

For the past decade, Pennsylvania has invested in programs that have proven to work for our students. The results are clear: No states have statistically significant higher 8th grade reading scores than Pennsylvania on the National Assessment of Educational Progress. Only six states have significantly higher 4th grade reading scores. On the NAEP math tests, only seven states have significantly higher 8th grade math scores than Pennsylvania and only four are significantly higher on 4th grade math scores.

The Center for Education Policy cited Pennsylvania in 2010 for recording gains in all academic categories from 2002-2008.

Pennsylvania’s performance ranks above the U.S. average and the averages of 36 of 48 countries in math. It ranked below only that of five Asian jurisdictions (Singapore, Hong Kong, Korea, Chinese Taipei, and Japan). More Pennsylvania students than ever (7 out of 10) are going on to higher education.

Translating this locally, even our most challenged schools have shown remarkable improvements in student achievement over the past seven years. In York City, the percent of students scoring advanced or proficient on state tests increased from 31.5 percent in 2003 to 51.1 percent in 2010 in math, and from 33.2 percent to 41.9 percent in reading. The number of students in York County schools that score below basic in math and reading has dropped significantly. This will make a remarkable difference in these young people’s lives, and in the life of this community.

However, Gov. Corbett recently unveiled his 2011-12 state budget, and it proposes an unprecedented $1.2 billion in funding cuts to public school classrooms. Public education funding cuts for York County school districts total $33.7 million in the governor’s budget proposal.

The proposed cuts would reverse years of significant academic gains, and local property taxpayers and students will be the ones who suffer the consequences. School boards will be forced to raise property taxes, eliminate programs that have contributed to our students’ outstanding academic achievements, and slash teaching jobs. That means that students will ultimately pay the price.

The challenge is whether we can hold the ground we have gained and to accelerate the pace of student progress in York City and throughout the county.

This requires concentrating what funding we have in those areas with the greatest education need. It requires a shared commitment from families and the public and private agencies that support young people’s growth, including parents and school professionals; school boards and state agencies; employers and taxpayers.

If we continue our funding commitment to public education and implement proven programs that work, like small class size, full-day kindergarten and pre-kindergarten, students in York will continue to progress.

James P. Testerman is president of the Pennsylvania State Education Association. He taught science and biology in the Central York School District for 16 before taking leave to work for PSEA. He lives in York County.