School administrators Wednesday presented Reynolds Area School Board with results from the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment tests and a plan to improve student learning and performance on those basic-skills tests.

Ronald Bradley, high school co-principal; JoAnn Bova, director of curriculum; Brian Bronson, elementary co-principal, Joseph Torok, high school co-principal; and Superintendent Dr. Charles Cagno spoke to the public about how the district plans to help students improve PSSA scores and meet state standards.

According to the state Department of Education, 30 percent of Reynolds students scored below the 25th percentile on both the reading and math portions of the PSSA. The figure is based on an average of the 1998 and 1999 tests.

In relation to the curriculum, Bradley said the district will look at where it’s been, where it is now, where it’s going and how it will get there.

Bradley said aligning the assessment and curriculum is a time-consuming, tedious and costly process. He also said the PSSA is becoming "high stakes" because the state will base funding on how well a district does on the test.

Bradley said the state has adopted standards in mathematics, reading, writing, speaking and listening. Proposed standards are environment and ecology, science and technology, civics and government, arts and humanities, geology and economics, while standards in draft form are health, safety and physical education; family and consumer sciences; history; career education and world languages.

Bradley said the district needs to determine what it has to gain by embracing state standards and what it has to lose by delaying or rejecting the standards.

Ms. Bova explained that academic standards state what a student should know. Academic standards also state what will be taught and will provide consistency from class to class. She said standards must be rigorous, measurable, applicable to the real world and clearly written so they are understood by everyone.

Bronson presented the Reynolds Elementary Academic Intervention Plan. The goals of the plan are to increase student achievement in reading and math in relation to the PSSA.

Bronson talked about different learning styles of students and used visual aids to demonstrate that sometimes a student needs something tangible to learn from. He showed the audience a box an elementary student made, which flipped a card that had a math problem on one side and an answer on the other. He also showed a mechanical board that teaches students biology terms.

Bronson said the school would implement "Drop Everything and Read" time and an accelerated reader incentive program. He also stressed parental involvement, including a family reading night, a restructuring of the summer tutoring program and the importance of parent volunteers.

Torok talked about developing a positive attitude with administrators, teachers, family and students. He also mentioned the importance of on-going communication, parent-teacher conferences and participating in policy-making activities.

The PSSA will be given to fifth-, eighth- and 11th-graders from April 2 to 6.

Cagno asked the school board for support in carrying out the plan, both in policy and financially. He said the first step in the plan would cost about $25,000.

"We strongly believe we can do better," Cagno said. "We have a plan, it’s in its roughest stages ... with all our efforts together we will produce positive results."