October 18, 2016

Suburban Philly schools with highest state School Performance Profile scores

By Bob McGovern and Jon Tuleya

Google/StreetView

Manoa Elementary School in Haverford Township, Delaware County, made the list of highest-scoring elementary schools in the four Philadelphia suburban counties.

The state Department of Education released 2016 School Performance Profile scores for all Pennsylvania schools last week, and PhillyVoice has organized the scores for schools in the four suburban counties – Bucks, Chester, Delaware and Montgomery – into 10 tables.

The first two tables show the highest-scoring middle and elementary schools among all four counties. The final eight show the best-performing middle and elementary schools in each county.

The calculation of SPP scores had been put on hold last year for most schools to give teachers and students a year to adjust to the new Core Curriculum and realignment of the PSSA, or Pennsylvania System of School Assessment standardized test. The 2016 SPP scores are the first to reflect middle and elementary school student performance on the more challenging PSSA. The Department of Education, at the direction of Gov. Tom Wolf, is currently working to make the standardized test-dependent SPP a "better, more holistic measure."

The SPP is calculated using numerous criteria, some weighted more heavily than others. These include student performance on standardized tests, like the PSSA, Keystone Exams and the SAT/ACT college admissions tests. The score also factors in how many students performed proficiently on standardized tests and improvements made by students who had previously underperformed on these tests, among other factors.

A more detailed description of the scoring criteria and Top 50 highest-scoring high schools in the Philadelphia region can be found here. And lists of Philadelphia's top public and charter schools, based on the SPP data, can be found here.

The searchable database of the reports for all the schools in Pennsylvania is available on the education department's website.

Information for the top-scoring middle and elementary schools in the suburban counties is below.

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OVERALL

Top-scoring middle schools in the suburban counties

Rank	School	District	County	SPP score
1	Spring-Ford 7th Grade Center	Spring-Ford Area	Montgomery	86.9
2	New Hope-Solebury	New Hope-Solebury	Bucks	86.3
3	Charles F. Patton	Unionville-Chadds Ford	Chester	85.5
4	Haverford	Haverford Twp.	Delaware	83.7
5	Spring-Ford 8th Grade Center	Spring-Ford Area	Montgomery	83.6
6	Pennbrook	North Penn	Montgomery	82.2
7	Valley Forge	Tredyffrin-Easttown	Chester	81.8
8	Springfield	Springfield	Montgomery	81.7
9	Jenkintown	Jenkintown	Montgomery	81.3
10	Fred S. Engle	Avon Grove	Chester	79.7

Top-scoring elementary schools in the suburban counties

Rank	School	District	County	SPP score
1	Shamona Creek	Downingtown	Chester	94.6
2	North Coventry	Owen J. Roberts	Chester	93.9
3	Souderton CS Cooperative	Souderton CS	Montgomery	92.9
4	Pine Run	Central Bucks	Bucks	92.5
4	Limerick	Spring-Ford	Montgomery	92.5
6	Manoa	Haverford Twp.	Delaware	92.3
7	Rose Tree	Rose Tree Media	Delaware	91.9
8	New Hope-Solebury Lower	New Hope-Solebury	Bucks	91.4
8	Pocopson	Unionville-Chadds Ford	Chester	91.4
10	York Avenue	North Penn	Montgomery	91.2
10	Devon	Tredyffrin-Easttown	Chester	91.2

BUCKS COUNTY

Middle schools

Rank	School	District	Type of school	SPP score
1	New Hope-Solebury	New Hope-Solebury	Public	86.3
2	William Penn	Pennsbury	Public	76.8
3	Charles H. Boehm	Pennsbury	Public	76.4
4	Poquessing	Neshaminy	Public	76.3
5	Tamanend	Central Bucks	Public	75.2
6	Pennridge Central	Pennridge	Public	74.6
7	Richboro	Council Rock	Public	72.8
8	Newtown	Council Rock	Public	72.3
9	Lenape	Central Bucks	Public	72.0
10	Milford	Quakertown Community	Public	71.6

Elementary schools

Rank	School	District	Type of school	SPP score
1	Pine Run	Central Bucks	Public	92.5
2	New Hope-Solebury Lower	New Hope-Solebury	Public	91.4
3	Bucks County Montessori	Bucks County Montessori	Charter	91.1
4	Butler	Central Bucks	Public	90.8
5	Cold Spring	Central Bucks	Public	90.1
6	New Hope-Solebury Upper	New Hope-Solebury	Public	89.6
7	Bridge Valley	Central Bucks	Public	88.6
8	Jamison	Central Bucks	Public	88.5
9	Warwick	Central Bucks	Public	87.7
10	Buckingham	Central Bucks	Public	87.5

CHESTER COUNTY

Middle schools

Rank	School	District	Type of school	SPP score
1	Charles F. Patton	Unionville-Chadds Ford	Public	85.5
2	Valley Forge	Tredyffrin-Easttown	Public	81.8
3	Fred S. Engle	Avon Grove	Public	79.7
4	Tredyffrin-Easttown	Tredyffrin-Easttown	Public	78.9
5	Stetson	West Chester Area	Public	75.8
6	J.R. Fugett	West Chester Area	Public	75.0
7	Great Valley	Great Valley	Public	74.6
8	Kennett	Kennett Consolidated	Public	73.0
9	Downingtown	Downingtown Area	Public	70.4
10	Owen J. Roberts	Owen J. Roberts	Public	69.1

Elementary schools

Rank	School	District	Type of school	SPP score
1	Shamona Creek	Downingtown Area	Public	94.6
2	North Coventry	Owen J. Roberts	Public	93.9
3	Pocopson	Unionville-Chadds Ford	Public	91.4
4	Devon	Tredyffrin-Easttown	Public	91.2
5	Kathryn D. Markley	Great Valley	Public	90.8
6	Sugartown	Great Valley	Public	88.9
7	Hillendale	Unionville-Chadds Ford	Public	88.5
8	West Bradford	Downingtown Area	Public	88.3
9	East Pikeland	Phoenixville Area	Public	87.9
10	East Vincent	Owen J. Roberts	Public	87.8

DELAWARE COUNTY

Middle schools

Rank	School	District	Type of school	SPP score
1	Haverford	Haverford Twp.	Public	83.7
2	Strath Haven	Wallingford-Swarthmore	Public	79.4
3	Paxon Hollow	Marple Newtown	Public	79.1
4	Garnet Valley	Garnet Valley	Public	74.8
5	Springton Lake	Rose Tree Media	Public	71.9
6	Radnor	Radnor Twp.	Public	70.0
7	Richardson	Springfield	Public	68.4
8	Ridley	Ridley	Public	61.8
9	Northley	Penn-Delco	Public	61.1
10	Beverly Hills	Upper Darby	Public	60.4

Elementary schools

Rank	School	District	Type of school	SPP score
1	Manoa	Haverford Twp.	Public	92.3
2	Rose Tree	Rose Tree Media	Public	91.9
3	Lynnewood	Haverford Twp.	Public	88.7
4	Culbertson	Marple Newtown	Public	88.4
5	Garnet Valley	Garnet Valley	Public	87.9
6	Bethel Springs	Garnet Valley	Public	87.2
7	Concord	Garnet Valley	Public	87.0
8	Swarthmore-Rutledge	Wallingford-Swarthmore	Public	86.5
9	Ithan	Radnor Twp.	Public	85.3
10	Worrall	Marple Newtown	Public	85.1

MONTGOMERY COUNTY

Middle schools

Rank	School	District	Type of school	SPP score
1	Spring-Ford 7th Grade Center	Spring-Ford Area	Public	86.9
2	Spring-Ford 8th Grade Center	Spring-Ford Area	Public	83.6
3	Pennbrook	North Penn	Public	82.2
4	Springfield	Springfield	Public	81.7
5	Jenkintown	Jenkintown	Public	81.3
6	Upper Merion	Upper Merion	Public	78.5
7	Wissahickon	Wissahickon	Public	77.2
8	Bala Cynwyd	Lower Merion	Public	75.9
9	Arcola Intermediate	Methacton	Public	74.2
10	Upper Moreland	Upper Moreland	Public	74.0

Elementary schools

Rank	School	District	Type of school	SPP score
1	Souderton CS Collaborative	Souderton CS	Charter (K-8)	92.9
2	Limerick	Spring-Ford	Public	92.5
3	York Avenue	North Penn	Public	91.2
4	Stony Creek	Wissahickon	Public	91.0
5	General Nash	North Penn	Public	90.3
6	Penn Valley	Lower Merion	Public	88.7
7	Thomas Fitzwater	Upper Dublin	Public	87.8
8	Evergreen	Perkiomen Valley	Public	87.2
9	Royersford	Spring-Ford	Public	87.1
10	North Wales	North Penn	Public	86.7