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School safety Changes in data collection may have led to discrepancies

By Mark Guydish mguydish@timesleader.com
Education Reporter
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Luzerne County’s public schools have become veritable fight clubs, according to new state data in the annual “School Safety Reports.”

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Antonelli

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Namey

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In the county’s 11 school districts combined, the number of fighting incidents rose from 74 in the 2006-07 school year to 163 in 2010-11.

A big chunk of that climb occurred in a single year, with reports of fighting rising last year 58 percent from 2009-10, when the total for all 11 districts was 103.

But the annual documents come with an annual caveat: The numbers seem prone to error and inconsistency despite repeated state efforts to make them uniform and reliable.

Take the dramatic spike in reported fighting at Pittston Area and Hazleton Area, which seem to show two sides of the inconsistency coin: over-reported and underreported numbers.

State data show that Pittston Area reported nine fighting incidents in 2006-07, and 33 in 2010-11. A closer look shows most of the increase occurred at the middle school, with five fights in 2006-07, and 28 in 2010-11.

Middle School Principal Patrick Bilbow admitted he was “stunned” when he heard those numbers. Not because there was so much fighting going on in his school, but because there wasn’t.

“It’s not possible,” Bilbow said, noting the school typically sees about a half dozen fights in a year.

After researching the issue, Bilbow said the error appeared to be one of misclassification. Arguments had been entered as “fights” when data was sent to the state.

“I’ll give you a perfect example,” Bilbow said Friday, citing a discipline report filed that day by a teacher as a “fight.” The report said two boys “were arguing in class and it almost became physical.”

The teacher filed the report electronically through a computer system called Skyward. Those numbers are then forwarded to the state to be compiled into the School Safety Report. If the building administration doesn’t review the data and change the classification to something more accurate – “minor altercation” or “disorderly conduct,” say – it will end up in the final state report as a fight.

Bilbow said his staff reviewed the 2010-11 discipline reports and determined about two-thirds of those 28 “fights” were misclassified.

Low counts in Hazleton

In Hazleton Area, the opposite seemed to happen. The district – Luzerne County’s largest – officially reported only three incidents of fighting in 2006-07; in 2010-11, it was 30. Upon hearing the numbers, Acting Superintendent Francis X. Antonelli voiced surprise – at the low number from five years ago. In a district that had 10,000 students at the time, such a low count seemed improbable.

Antonelli speculated – as did Pittston Area Superintendent George Cosgrove – that changes in how the data were reported and compiled may have led to such big discrepancies.

The state switched to a web-based filing system in the last few years, mandating that all districts adopt a digital “Personal Information Management System,” or PIMS, for student data.

Teachers and administrators now file much information electronically that previously went on paper. Bilbow noted this increases the odds that information will go from teacher to state without being reviewed by administrators.

The state also expanded the types of incidents in the reports, adding nuance with categories such as “minor altercation” and “open lewdness.” In all, there were 43 types of incidents listed in the 2007-08 reports; in 2010-11, there were 51.

Still, administrators – particularly in the largest local districts, such as Hazleton Area and Wilkes-Barre Area – acknowledge the difficulty in maintaining order as their student populations become more diverse. Both districts have security directors and place resource officers – police – in their high schools.

Antonelli said Hazleton Area has an agreement with state police that puts a trooper on the campus housing the high school, ninth-grade center and career and technology center – three buildings that contain nearly 3,500 students. “That’s more than many small, liberal arts college campuses,” he noted.

The district has a second retired police officer hired full time as a resource officer with full arrest powers, and an unarmed security force of 20. If the increases in fighting reported in state data are accurate, “we have measures in place to deal with them appropriately and promptly,” Antonelli said.

Police in W-B Area

Wilkes-Barre Area also has full-time police officers in its three high schools. Superintendent Jeff Namey said that might be one reason the district has not seen a spike in fighting incidents. There were five reported incidents in 2006-07 and 13 in 2010-11.

“We have some issues, especially now with the diversity of students. Sometimes groups go after one another. We’re dealing with that,” Namey said. “I really believe having officers in the three high schools helps.”