April showers, PSSA flowers

Ah, spring is in the air. The redbuds are blooming outside Henry. The middle school dragonboat team is getting ready to hit the Schuylkill. Students are back to assembling in the upper school yard at the start of the day. And the annual PSSA bookends the month.

The Pennsylvania System of School Assessment, or PSSA, is the standardized test that measure's compliance with state goals under the federal No Child Left Behind act. Say what you want about NCLB, standardized testing, and the unfairness of it all.

Through the PSSA, Henry students prove, year after year, that this school shines - not just above other city schools, but ahead of the curve for their peers across the state. Overall scores best both city and state averages. Break down by grade and demographic, and Henry floats above the norm.

Want details? Take a look at Henry's 2007/08 Academic Achievement Report. You'll see that Henry not only met the state goals for reading and math, last year, but is already at the higher mark for 2007/08 for math. (NCLB goals rise each year, meaning good schools like Henry have to keep getting even better.)

See previous posts about Henry's PSSA results, here.