In 2011, the district agreed to participate in a pilot program to develop a new way to evaluate teachers that, in part, takes into account student achievement. Several York County school districts are participating. The pilot program had 104 K-12 entities, including: nine career and technical centers, nine charter schools and nine intermediate units. Beginning in January 2012, participating school districts will use the new evaluation method and provide feedback to the Department of Education. This new evaluation will not be used to determine an educator's official 2011-12 assessment. Under the new evaluation system, 50% of the evaluation of a teacher will be based on an observation divided into four categories: planning and preparation, classroom environment, instruction, and professional responsibilities. The other half will be based on student achievement (15 percent will be building-level data, 15 percent will be teacher-specific data, and 20 percent will be elective). The new evaluation system has both announced and unannounced observations. There are meetings between the teacher and evaluator before and after the direct observation of a lesson. In October 2015, Pennsylvania Auditor General Eugene DePasquale reported that L.B. Morris Elementary School was among the 561 academically challenged schools that have been overlooked by the Pennsylvania Department of Education. He also reported the Pennsylvania Department of Education failed to take any action to remediate the poorly performing schools to raise student academic achievement or to provide them with targeted professional assistance. Jim Thorpe Area School District was ranked 272nd out of 493 Pennsylvania school districts by the Pittsburgh Business Times in 2016. The ranking was based on student academic achievement as demonstrated on the last three years of the PSSAs for: reading, writing math and science. The PSSAs are given to all children in grades 3rd through 8th and the 11th grade in high school. Writing exams were given to children in 5th and 8th grades. Adapted examinations are given to children in the special education programs. Some districts are not included in the ranking due to not operating a high school or where insufficient data was provided by the PDE.. In 2012, the "Pittsburgh Business Times" also reported an Overachievers Ranking for 498 Pennsylvania school districts. Jim Thorpe Area School District ranked 264th In 2011, the district was ranked 302nd in the Commonwealth. The editor describes the ranking as: "a ranking answers the question - which school districts do better than expectations based upon economics? This rank takes the Honor Roll rank and adds the percentage of students in the district eligible for free and reduced-price lunch into the formula.