EDITORIAL

Good news in Manville’s report cards.

   The state’s annual report card for schools was issued last week, and we encourage Manville parents and residents to comb through the statistics.
   If they do, they’ll see the efforts by officials to upgrade classroom materials and curricula in the last few years is beginning to bear fruit.
   While the results of the standardized tests — which are announced in the fall — focus on the scores of each class, it’s the report cards that can give the best perspective on the direction schools are going.
   And it certainly looks like Manville’s direction is a positive one — nearly three times as many high school students achieved advanced proficiency in language and twice as many in math as they did on the state’s High School Proficiency Assessment (HSPA) four years ago.
   While each year has shown improvement, the biggest step forward was between the 2004-2005 and 2005-2006 school years and there’s no reason to expect the trend to change.
   Five years ago, many textbooks in the district were so old there were three fewer presidents to learn about, twice as many Germanys and words like "Internet" and "World Wide Web" were nowhere to be found.
   The district has invested in new books — as well as new technology — to leap forward for the benefit of the students.
   While you’re reading the report card, take note of the last set of figures for the district — the "per-pupil expenditures": it’s gone down. A couple of times.
   While the average school district Manville’s size has seen a steady increase in costs, Manville has actually reduced per-pupil expenditures twice between the 2002-2003 and 2005-2006 school years — and the school budgets actually passed in 2003, 2004 and 2005.
   Manville has also consistently run schools at a cost below the average comparable district.
   That’s good news that’s worth highlighting.