The Pennsylvania Department of Education recently released its 2017 School Performance Profile scores with Carbon Career and Technical Institute, Pleasant Valley High School and Palmerton Area High School leading the way locally.

“The School Performance Profile scores released today provide school-level information to the public related to student achievement and progress,” said Secretary of Education Pedro A. Rivera.

The scores assess each school’s performance on a 0-100 scale based on standardized testing, student improvement, advanced course offerings and graduation rates, among other criteria.

As Pennsylvania transitions to the use of the Future Ready PA Index, the state’s new public-facing school report card, Rivera noted that this will be the last year SPP scores will be used beyond their requirements under Act 82. That act, passed in 2012, codified into law the use of building-level scores for educator evaluation.

“We are proud to announce that our SPP academic score for the 2016-17 school year rose from 91.2 to 91.7,” David Reinbold, CCTI executive director, and Brent Borzak, principal, said in a statement on the school’s website. “There are 16 comprehensive career and technical schools in Pennsylvania. For the fourth consecutive year, CCTI’s SPP academic score is the highest score in the state among these 16 comprehensive career and technical schools. Thanks to the hard work and dedication of our students, parents, staff, joint operating committee, and all stakeholders within the community, CCTI has achieved this commendable ranking.”

It is the third year in a row, CCTI has achieved the highest score among all Carbon County schools.

“Per our goals and objectives, we continue to study the elements that are used to determine our score, and develop plans to improve achievement and raise the school score as much as possible,” Rein­bold and Borzak said. “We revised our curricula, master schedule, and delivery systems, and work as a team to maintain our high standards for grading, attendance and work ethic.”

With Towamensing Elementary scoring a 78.2, Palmerton Area School District landed two schools in the top 6.

“We look at the Pennsylvania Value-Added Assessment System and benchmarking data to ensure all our students are meeting or exceeding the standard for academic growth,” said Dan Heaney, Palmerton’s director of curriculum and technology. “However, at the end of the day we are fortunate to have great students who are supported by a strong community and our SPP scores are a reflection of that.”

Palmerton also revised its English language arts curriculum, implemented a new reading series, and revised curriculum for math over the course of the past two years.

Algebra I was changed to a yearlong course and the district created smaller enrichment groups for remediation.

The Future Ready PA Index will utilize a dashboard approach to present school-level data, and will feature a broad range of indicators, such as English language acquisition, career readiness indicators, access to advanced coursework, and chronic absenteeism, among others. These indicators were identified following months of dialogue with thousands of stakeholders, including parents and families, educators, community organizations, advocates, and policymakers, across Pennsylvania.

“While Pennsylvania is transitioning to a new school report card next year, providing communities and parents with transparency, accountability, and access to supports and resources remains our number one priority,” added Rivera.

Northern Lehigh High School and Pleasant Valley Elementary School rounded out the top 5.