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Public commenter says proficiency and violence data show 'unequivocal failure'; district says mapping error misrepresented discipline rates
Summary
A Lansdale resident criticized the district’s proficiency and middle‑school violence data and questioned suspension practices; the superintendent said a mapping error in how infractions were coded for state dashboards inflated reported violence rates and that the issue will be explained at the Safe Schools Committee.
Jason Lanier of Lansdale used the public‑comment period to urge the board to examine district equity and discipline outcomes, citing declines in proficiency and spikes in reported violent incidents at middle schools.
"I view it as looking at the data as, the the unequivocal failure of the the education and equity," Lanier told the board, arguing that proficiency levels and reported violence have fallen since 2015 and that some metrics appear inconsistent with local suspension figures.
Superintendent Dr. Bauer acknowledged Lanier's concerns and said the district has been investigating discrepancies shown on Pennsylvania Department of Education dashboards. "He is correct that some of those dashboards say that those rates are higher in North Penn than others, and we have been able to identify the fact that it is a mapping issue with our discipline reporting," the superintendent said, adding that some infractions had been miscoded when transmitted to the state (for example, graffiti logged in ways that mapped to violent incident codes). The superintendent said the data extract to PDE has been corrected going forward and that staff will present a fuller discipline dashboard update at the Safe Schools Committee.
Board members thanked Lanier for raising the issue and asked that the Safe Schools Committee provide more detail on the mapping correction and historical clarification of the reported numbers. The superintendent said the district's internal dashboard remains accurate and the mapping error affected how incidents were categorized on the state's dashboard.
Next steps: The board directed staff to discuss the corrected mapping and provide a discipline dashboard update at a future Safe Schools Committee meeting.
