More than a dozen schools in Mercer County fail to meet the educational standards required by the state, according to a report released by the Pennsylvania Department of Education.

Under the statewide standards, each school is scored on its students' performance on the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment reading and math tests. Year-to-year improvement in other areas, such as test scores, attendance and graduation rate, are also used to track a school's performance. Also, a certain percentage of a school's minorities and low-income students must pass the test as well.

Students in grades five, eight and 11 take the tests that measure their schools' progress.

For a school to be judged effective, 45 percent of the students must get proficient or higher scores on the state reading test, and 35 percent on the state math test. Those percentages increase annually with a statewide goal of 100 percent proficiency for all students in math and reading by 2014.

Schools in Mercer County that need improvement, according to the state standards, are: Farrell High, Greenville Junior-Senior High, George Junior Republic, Hickory High, Jamestown Junior-Senior High, Lakeview High, Reynolds Elementary, Reynolds Junior-Senior High, Reynolds Elementary, Musser Elementary, Sharon Junior-Senior High, West Hill Elementary and West Middlesex Junior-Senior High.

Three county schools are on the "School Improvement 1" list. This is the second year in a row they have not met all of the state-required goals for yearly improvement, said Brian Christopher, deputy press secretary for the Department of Education. Those schools are Farrell Elementary, Keystone Education Center and Mercer Junior-Senior High.

To avoid being placed on the "Needs Improvement" warning list, a school must meet the state requirements for reading, math and overall participation of students in the tests; in addition, elementary and middle schools must meet an attendance benchmark. High schools must meet a benchmark four-year graduation rate instead of the attendance goal. The schools must show improvement from year to year in their attendance and graduation rates, Christopher said, with the eventual goal being 95 percent attendance and graduation.

Dr. Patricia Homer, superintendent of Greenville-area schools, said Greenville will appeal the decision to place the high school on the "Warning" list because of data errors.

According to the numbers used by the state, Greenville didn't meet the attendance requirement, something Dr. Homer said was an error.

Dr. Homer said correct information was used to determine the school had more than enough students judged proficient in reading and writing. According to state data, 62.7 percent of the students at Greenville are proficient in reading and 58.5 percent in math.

Dr. Homer said the district's success on the reading and math scores is due to the hard work of the teachers and students.

"Everybody works hard toward meeting these standards and providing the students every opportunity to succeed," Dr. Homer said.

Greenville offers several programs to provide extra help to students who need it, Dr. Homer said. Those include summer-school programs, before- and after-school help, one-on-one assistance and special classes geared toward helping students who have trouble in reading and math.

Reynolds schools were also placed on the "Warning" list, but, according to Superintendent Dr. Anthony Trosan, it's not entirely clear why. More than enough students in the district are proficient in math and reading, he said. According to the state data, Reynolds schools didn't meet the benchmarks for attendance rates.

"This is the first year the state has made this needs-improvement list and we have had limited communication with the state as to what this means," Trosan said.

Often, he said, initial reports from test results can be wrong.

"There are times we'll get three or more reports until they decide which one is right," he said.

Still, it could be there is a problem, he said.

"It could be that there is a pretty serious problem," Trosan said, "and until there's consistent clarification, we'll proceed where we're fairly certain we're on the right path. If it turns out there's a problem, we'll take it seriously."

Also according to the state data, not enough minority or economically disadvantaged students in Reynolds schools passed the tests.

Students enrolled in Grove City schools had some of the highest -- and lowest -- scores on the reading and math tests.

Students at Grove City High School, Middle School and Hillview Elementary had some of the highest passing percentages on reading and math, a factor Assistant Superintendent Tom Bell attributes to the district's programs and employees.

Bell said the success is due to the work of the entire staff, not just the teachers whose students are taking the tests. "From kindergarten on up, our staff is focused on meeting those state standards," Bell said.

Grove City offers tutoring and before- and after-school programs to students who need help.

The low scores were achieved by students at George Junior Republic schools, which are placed in with the Grove City School District. George Junior is a school for adjudicated youth, Bell said. Grove City teachers staff the school, but other aspects of George Junior are run by a private, nonprofit company, he said.

Bell said the tests administered to the George Junior students aren't accurate measures of their learning.

"What we're looking forward to is some sort of a value-added assessment," Bell said, meaning that students would be tested at the beginning of the year and then again at the end of the year to measure their progress.

"The progress they make is outstanding," Bell said. "But they come in so low when thrown in with kids attending school all along. Some haven't been in school for years when they are sent to George Junior. So you see what they're fighting there."

Bell said it's not uncommon for a student to start the year at George Junior reading at a third-grade level, and then finishing the year at a fifth- or sixth-grade reading level.

"The teachers there are very dedicated and the students have good support on their educations, have stable homes and houseparents, and are starting to lead normal lives," he said.

The first year a school does not meet all of the standards, the state issues a warning. After that, the schools progress through a series of mandatory penalties by the state. During the second year of not meeting standards, deficient schools have to offer parents the choice of transferring their students to another school in the same district and preparing a specific plan for improvement.

Different penalties are added each year until the fifth year of making no improvement, at which point the state steps in and controls the school.

Schools are taken off the school improvement list when they meet all of the state standards for two years in a row.

Pennsylvania's state standards bring the commonwealth in line with the No Child Left Behind act passed by Congress in 2001, which mandates educational accountability in all schools across the nation.

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