Panther Valley ranked among ‘worst school districts’ in Pa.

A new ranking calls Panther Valley School District the sixth worst school district in Pennsylvania.

Pennlive.com published its list of “The 50 worst school districts in Pennsylvania” Monday.

The article used data compiled by the website niche.com, which ranks college and K-12 institutions based on data from government agencies and reviews submitted to its website.

Panther Valley’s ranking appears to be based on its low PSSA test scores and graduation rate.

District Superintendent Dennis Kergick said the ranking used incorrect graduation data, so it’s not an accurate reflection of the school’s academics.

“I don’t know where they developed this from, and I don’t feel we’re one of the worst six school districts in Pennsylvania.

He also pointed out that Panther Valley and the other “worst” districts are among those that receive the least funding per pupil from the state.

According to PennLive, Panther Valley’s graduation rate was 42 percent. The same number was used in a ranking by U.S. News and World Report last year, and most likely came from the state department of education.

School officials said back then, and reiterated on Monday, that they misreported graduation data from the 2014-15 school year, which they have not been able to correct. The data incorrectly added 80 students who did not graduate.

The result was the 42.7 percent graduation rate. District officials say the actual 2014-15 graduation rate was 74.5 percent.

“The key factor, one of the key factors is the 42 percent graduation rate. I definitely dispute that,” Kergick said.

But graduation wasn’t the only factor. The survey was based on academics (50 percent), teachers (15 percent), culture and diversity (10 percent), parent student surveys (10 percent), and less than 10 percent for health and safety, resources and facilities, clubs and activities, and sports.

Niche.com did not say what weight they gave to the surveys versus the hard data. There are only three reviews posted on the site, one five-star, one four-star and one one-star.

“If you are a statistics person, you have validity and reliability, you have to consider how many were filled out, there has to be a certain sampling,” he said. PennLive said that Panther Valley had only 21 percent of students proficient in math and 46 proficient in reading. That was based on PSSA testing, which is given to students in grades 3-8.

Experts have questioned the validity of niche.com’s data. The University of Arkansas’ Office for Education Policy pointed out that the survey is not scientific, and that bad data can be worse than no data at all. But they said the individual reviews can be of interest to parents, much in the way that an online restaurant review might be useful when looking for a place to eat dinner.

“We like how Niche pulls a lot of information about a school district together in one place, but don’t like the quality of the information or the fact that their calculations can’t be verified,” they wrote.

Kergick said he had never heard of niche.com before the rankings coming out on Monday, and said the rankings were probably done for attention. He acknowledged that there is work to be done for the district.

“There’s room for improvement in any school district, ours in particular for the assessment scores,” he said.