Central Mountain High School

In 2015, Central Mountain High School’s graduation rate was 90.7%.[9]

• 2014 - 93%[10]
• 2013 - 93.9% [11]
• 2012 - 93% [12]
• 2011 - 93% [13]
• 2010 - 91% [14]
• 2009 - 88%[15]

Central Mountain High School achieved 67.4 out of 100. Reflects on grade level reading, mathematics and science achievement. The PDE reported that 64.6% of the High School’s students were on grade level in reading/literature. In Algebra 1, 54% of students showed on grade level skills at the end of the course. In Biology I, 41.3% demonstrated on grade level science understanding at the end of the course.[16] Statewide, 53 percent of schools with an eleventh grade achieved an academic score of 70 or better. Five percent of the 2,033 schools with 11th grade were scored at 90 and above; 20 percent were scored between 80 and 89; 28 percent between 70 and 79; 25 percent between 60 and 69 and 22 percent below 60. The Keystone Exam results showed: 73 percent of students statewide scored at grade-level in English, 64 percent in Algebra I and 59 percent in biology.[17][18]

Central Mountain High School achieved 70.3 out of 100. Reflects on grade level reading, mathematics and science achievement. In reading/literature - 77% were on grade level. In Algebra 1, 67% showed on grade level skills. In Biology, 53% demonstrated on grade level science understanding at the end of the course.[19][20] Statewide, the percentage of high school students who scored proficient and advanced in Algebra I increased to 39.7% to 40.1%. The percentage of high school students who scored proficient and advanced in reading/literature declined to 52.5%. The percentage of high school students who scored proficient and advanced in biology improved from 39.7% to 41.4%.[21]

Central Mountain High School achieved out of 100. Reflects on grade level reading, mathematics and science achievement. In reading/literature - 67% were on grade level. In Algebra 1, 57% showed on grade level skills. In Biology, 41% showed on grade level science understanding.[22] According to the Pennsylvania Department of Education, 2,181 public schools (less than 73 percent of Pennsylvania public schools), achieved an academic score of 70 or higher. Pennsylvania 11th grade students no longer take the PSSAs. Instead, beginning in 2012, they take the Keystone Exams at the end of the associated course.[23]

In 2012, Central Mountain High School declined to School Improvement II AYP status when it failed to achieve a single one of the 8 academic targets.[24]

• 2011 - Making Progress: in School Improvement I AYP status.
• 2010 - School Improvement I status due to chronically low student achievement.[25]
• 2009 - declined to Warning AYP status due to lagging achievement[26]
• 2008 - achieved AYP status[27]
• 2007 - Making Progress Corrective Action Level 1 AYP[28]
• 2006 - declined further to Corrective Action Level 1 AYP due to low student academic achievement in reading and math. Under the federal No Child Left Behind Act, the school administration was required to notify parents of the school's poor achievement outcomes and to offer the parent the opportunity to transfer to a successful school within the District.[29]
• 2005 - declined to School Improvement Level II AYP status.[30]
• 2004 - declined to School Improvement Level I AYP status.[31] Central Mountain HIgh School administration was required by the Pennsylvania Department of Education, to develop a School Improvement Plan to address the school's low student achievement. Under the Pennsylvania Accountability System, the school district must pay for additional tutoring for struggling students.[32] The High School was eligible for special, extra funding under School Improvement Grants which the school must apply for each year.[33]
• 2003 - Warning AYP status due to lagging student achievement.

Pennsylvania System of School Assessments, commonly called PSSAs are No Child Left Behind Act related examinations which were administered from 2003 through 2012, in all Pennsylvania public high schools. The exams were administered in the Spring of each school year. The goal was for 100% of students to be on grade level or better in reading and mathematics, by the Spring of 2014. The tests focused on the state's Academic Standards for reading, writing, mathematics and science. The Science exam included content in science, technology, ecology and the environmental studies. The mathematics exam included: algebra I, algebra II, geometry and trigonometry. The standards were first published in 1998 and are mandated by the Pennsylvania State Board of Education.[34]

In 2013, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania changed its high school assessments to the Keystone Exams in Algebra 1, Reading/literature and Biology1. The exams are given at the end of the applicable course, rather than all in the spring of the student's 11th grade year.[35] Seventh graders and eighth graders continue to be tested in reading, math and 8th grade science PSSAs.

11th Grade Reading:

• 2012 - 62% on grade level, (19% below basic). State - 67% of 11th graders are on grade level.[36]
• 2011 - 65%, (17% below basic). State - 69.1% [37]
• 2010 - 63%, State - 67% [38]
• 2009 - 59%, State - 65%[39]
• 2008 - 63%, State - 65% [40]
• 2007 - 66%, State - 65%

11th Grade Math:

• 2012 - 52% on grade level (24% below basic). In Pennsylvania, 59% of 11th graders are on grade level.[41]
• 2011 - 61% (19% below basic). State - 60.3%[42]
• 2010 - 54%, State - 59%[43]
• 2009 - 53%, State - 56%[44]
• 2008 - 57%, State - 55%[45]
• 2007 - 48%, State - 53%[46]

11th Grade Science:

• 2012 - 33% on grade level (21% below basic). State - 44% of 11th graders were on grade level.
• 2011 - 29% (22% below basic). State - 40% [47]
• 2010 - 33% on grade level. State: 39% of 11th graders were on grade level.
• 2009 - 33%, State - 40%
• 2008 - 25%, State - 39% [48]

By law, all Pennsylvania secondary school students must complete a project as a part of their eligibility to graduate from high school. The type of project, its rigor and its expectations are set by the individual school district.[49]

By Pennsylvania School Board regulations, for the graduating classes of 2015 and 2016, students must demonstrate successful completion of secondary level course work in Algebra I, Biology, English Composition, and Literature for which the Keystone Exams serve as the final course exams. Students’ Keystone Exam scores shall count for at least one-third of the final course grade.[50]

According to a Pennsylvania Department of Education study released in January 2009, 7% of Keystone Central School District graduates required remediation in mathematics and or reading before they were prepared to take college level courses in the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education or community colleges.[51][52] Less than 66% of Pennsylvania high school graduates, who enroll in a four-year college in Pennsylvania, will earn a bachelor's degree within six years. Among Pennsylvania high school graduates pursuing an associate degree, only one in three graduate in three years.[53] Per the Pennsylvania Department of Education, one in three recent high school graduates who attend Pennsylvania's public universities and community colleges takes at least one remedial course in math, reading or English.

From January to June 2011, 165 Central Mountain students took the SAT exams. The district's Verbal Average Score was 470. The Math average score was 485. The Writing average score was 462.[54] Pennsylvania ranked 40th among states with SAT scores: Verbal - 493, Math - 501, Writing - 479.[55] In the United States, 1.65 million students took the exam in 2011. They averaged 497 (out of 800) verbal, 514 math and 489 in writing.[56]

Central Mountain is the high school that originally brought to light the alleged sexual predation of minors by former Penn State Defensive Coordinator Jerry Sandusky. The school district reported an incident involving Sandusky and Central Mountain student Aaron Fisher (identified in court papers as "Victim 1") after Fisher and his mother, Dawn Daniels, reported it to authorities in the Spring of 2008.[57][58][59]

On November 22, 2011, it was reported that Fisher, by then a 17-year-old senior at Central Mountain, was forced to leave the school because of bullying. The other students blamed Victim 1 for Penn State University's firing of football coach Joe Paterno.

Fisher and Daniels have claimed that principal Karen Probst and vice principal Steve Turchetta actively tried to persuade them not to report the incident to police. Although the Grand Jury indictment against Sandusky stated that the school called the police immediately upon being notified, Fisher and Daniels have both stated this is false. In an interview with ABC News' 20/20, Fisher and Daniels said that when Probst was notified of Fisher's charges, Probst replied that Sandusky had "a heart of gold" and would never harm a child, and that Fisher and Daniels needed to "go home and think about it" rather than report the incident to police. Daniels and Fisher later learned that school officials only reported the incident after they left Probst's office.[59] For unknown reasons, Probst was never fired by the school district and instead was allowed to retire in 2014, despite her role in aiding criminal activity.[60]

Earlier, in an interview with Huffington Post, Daniels (identified in the story as "Mother 1") said she first grew suspicious about Sandusky when she learned that Turchetta—who also serves as the school's head football coach—had given Sandusky nearly unfettered access to her son during school hours without any parental notification or permission. Sandusky had even taken Fisher off campus on several occasions. Daniels also reported (a) that she'd been chastised, and told by, a grandmother in a market "that Turchetta brought [Sandusky's banning from the school] up at his weekly football parent meeting, presumably with family members of the football team. According to Daniels, the woman added, 'Coach Turchetta said these charges are never going to stick and he'll walk away'"; (b) "that her son developed a close bond with a 28-year-old volunteer coach, which Turchetta abruptly ended"; and (c) that "her son told her that Turchetta was in his face, yelling at him: 'With what you've done already, no 28-year-old man needs to be around you.'"[61] Later, Fisher and Daniels learned that Turchetta had his own concerns about the relationship between Fisher and Sandusky, but made no further inquiries.[59]

The volunteer coach, Thom Hunter, detailed his own relationship with Fisher, his friends and track teammates, and the school which ultimately terminated his position. Neighbors and friends also spoke of gift-giving, car trips and arguments over the relationship between Fisher and Sandusky. Sandusky's attorney spoke of a night alone in a hotel room with Fisher, with "a pull-out cot ... paid for". A friend spoke at length of a 3-boy trip with Sandusky to a swimming pool, ending with Fisher alone in the car with the coach and "Sandusky holding the boy’s hand". Hunter and others spoke of a car accident Fisher suffered, and the process of comeback. Hunter also described the process of his interaction with another coach at the school, of Hunter's then being told to “stop showing up to practices”, and of the "Bring Tom Back" T-shirts thereafter "printed ... [by dozens of team members"].[62]

"'That’s Jerry — he was always a very physical kind of teddy bear, like an overgrown kid,' [Sandusky's attorney Joseph] Amendola said when asked about the friend’s account [of the swim trip]. 'He would hug kids, he kissed kids, but it wasn’t sexual.'" Amendola also questioned Victim 1's accounts—saying that Victim 1 "has, over time, exaggerated his claims of being molested"—and spoke of Sandusky's gift-giving habits, in response to the reporting.[62]