All three Catasauqua Area School District schools have been placed on warning status by the state due to performance on the reading section of the 2011-12 PSSA exam.

Christina Lutz-Doemling, director of curriculum and assessment, shared the information with the board at Monday night's meeting.

While Sheckler Elementary School met 14 of the 17 required targets, the school did not meet its performance targets in reading in the all students, Latino/Hispanic and the economically disadvantaged student categories.

Catasauqua Middle School did attain 20 of the 21 targets, but did not meet the required performance target in the IEP category.

Catasauqua High School only met eight of the mandated 14 target areas. The high school was unable to meet the all students, white non-Hispanic and economically disadvantaged targets in math and the all students, white non-Hispanic and the economically disadvantaged categories in reading.

The district, as a whole, was unable to meet the 3-5, 6-8 and 9-12 grade span reading performance targets as set by the state.

Lutz-Doemling had earlier stressed, during the Sept. 5 CASD Academics and Education Committee meeting, that low reading scores are not an indication district students cannot read well, but rather the district is not "meeting the targets set by the state."

She said the scores are lower than in previous years due to the increased standards set by the state. This year's performance goal for math was set at 78 percent and at 81 percent for reading. By 2014 all students must be 100 percent proficient in math and reading.

Lutz-Doemling said the district will work toward improving its overall scores.

"There were significantly higher targets than last year," she said. "We're going to do our best to meet that standard. What we're striving for is to see continuous growth."

She indicated the schools have laid out action plans to address key deficiencies. Sheckler's plan includes identifying students in need based on PSSA data, adjusting the third and fourth grade Title I schedule to provide additional remediation for students not identified as Title I, IEP or ESL, offering Title I students 150 minutes of pull-out remediation, providing individualized instruction and providing remediation to specific students.

CMS will schedule data analysis sessions, utilize one-on-one conferences, review the course curriculum and align courses of study and provide students with the opportunity to set their own academic goals.

CHS will review its course curriculum and planned courses of study, utilize CDT assessments and schedule data analysis sessions.

Lutz-Doemling also said the scores may be influenced by a recent influx of economically disadvantaged students into the school district. CASD Superintendent Robert Spengler noted over the past seven years the number of economically disadvantaged students has doubled.

"What you're seeing is a change in demographics," Spengler said during the committee meeting. "It correlates to the increased need of support services and at the same time you have less resources to provide for them [students]."

CHS Principal David Ascani took note during the committee meeting of the high school's low scores, but said the high school will move forward and make the necessary changes.

"It's no excuse, we didn't make it," said Ascani. "We'll meet and regroup and improve. We have a lot of work to do, but I'm very confident we can do it."