The Pennsylvania Department of Education released Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA) scores on Friday.
While those scores indicate a decline state-wide, the Warren County School District trumps the state average, or is on par with it, across the board.
A release from PDE reported state-wide averages of 76 percent proficiency in math and 72 percent in reading.
The WCSD mirrors the state average at 72 percent but surpassed the state average in math, achieving 78 percent proficiency, according to the district's report card available at paayp.emetric.net/. Individual school report cards are available as well..
Science scores were also higher in the district, on average, than across the state. Fourth grade science students in the WCSD tested at 89 proficiency, 7 percent above the state average. Similar success was seen in eighth grade science with 65 percent proficiency while the state average was 59 percent. Students who took the eleventh grade science exam showed an edge over the state average as well, 45 percent to 42 percent proficiency.
District-wide scores in writing and science are not included on the district's report card.
According to the release from PDE, as a result of the statewide investigation of adults making changes to students' answer sheets on the Pennsylvania System of School Assessments, combined with increased testing security measures put into place earlier this year, statewide scores on the 2011-12 PSSAs declined slightly from last year," Secretary of Education Ron Tomalis said on Friday.
"Compared to the 2010-11 results, the 2011-12 (indicate) the percent of proficient or advanced students declined by 1.4 percentage points in math and 1.6 percentage points in reading," Tomalis said.
The release added that the adult alteration of student answer sheets was so widespread that test scores dropped significantly. "When a few individuals act inappropriately, everyone, including students, is negatively impacted," Tomalis said. "The most unfortunate victims of adult testing improprieties were the students who deserved the opportunity to illustrate and assess their abilities, and receive additional help if necessary."
The president of Pennsylvania's largest school employee union fired back at the charges levied by the Corbett administration.
"The Corbett administration today released Pennsylvania's PSSA test scores for the 2011-12 school year and tried to blame a slight drop in statewide scores on a minuscule number of schools in which there have been allegations of cheating on tests," Michael Crossley, president of the Pennsylvania State Education Association, said.
Crossley pointed the finger at the Corbett administration for the achievement dip.
"As parents know, Pennsylvania educators are dedicated to student achievement and work every day to help them learn" Crossley said. "But who really thinks state government can cut nearly $1 billion for the public schools, cut 14,000 educators,and eliminate programs that work for students - without impacting student achievement? It defies logic that the Corbett administration could reasonably expect student performance on standardized tests would improve after cutting nearly $1 billion from public schools."