EXCEPTIONAL SCHOOL DISTRICTS RECOGNIZED

 HARRISBURG, JULY 5 – State Sen. Connie Williams congratulated two school districts – Lower Merion and Radnor Township -- in the 17^th district for being named outperforming school districts in the state by Standard and Poor’s.

 “I was pleased when I saw how many of Pennsylvania’s schools were considered academic outperformers based on the stringent Standard and Poor’s rating system,” Williams said. “And to have two of the 47 in my district is due to the hard work of district officials and the communities that support these school districts.”

 Standard and Poor’s used analysis of 498 of the state’s 501 school districts and found that 47 school districts, or 9.4 percent, outperformed demographically similar school districts in reading and math proficiency for two consecutive years (2001-02 and 2002-03).

 Outperforming school districts were chosen based upon three criteria:

1. School districts must achieve higher levels of student proficiency than peers.

2. School districts must perform at a level that significantly exceeds statistical expectations.

3. School districts must outperform for at least two consecutive years.

 Overall, the state average for reading and math proficiency was 56.3 percent. Radnor Township School District achieved an 86.1 percent average and Lower Merion School District an 81.3 percent average.

 Standard and Poor’s developed the analysis to identify outperforming school districts in an effort to highlight outstanding academic performance and to help educators in school districts with similar demographics to identify benchmarks that could be used for improvement.