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Pennsylvania school test results
The Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA) tests math and reading skills in grades 3, 5, 8 and 11 and writing skills in grades 6, 9 and 11. Participation by public schools and charter schools is mandatory if the school offers the grade levels subjected to testing. Some nonpublic schools also administer the test., and the state reports those scores.
The math and reading tests whose results are published here were administered in April 2004; the results were released in August 2004. These results can also be viewed online at http://go.philly.com/reportcard, where there are also links to the 2004, 2003 and 2002 Report Cards.
Results, including those for writing tests, also can be viewed at the Pennsylvania Department of Education Web site: www.pde.state.pa.us/k12. On the left side of the screen, click on Assessment, then on PSSA Results.
Pennsylvania reports PSSA results for all students and allows few students to be exempted from taking the test. The state also sorts test results to show performance for the following subgroups: race, ethnicity, sex, economically disadvantaged, special education, migrant students, and students with limited English proficiency.
An Inquirer analysis of PSSA performance by racial and ethnic subgroups can be viewed at http://go.philly.com/gap2004.
Statewide, 413,000 test-takers in grades 5, 8 and 11 took the PSSAs in April 2004, with these results:
Math: Advanced proficient 28.3%; proficient 28.3%; basic 19.4%; below basic 24%.
Reading: Advanced proficient 31.3%; proficient 33%; basic 17%; below basic 18.5%.
For purposes of calculating whether schools are making "adequate yearly progress" under federal guidelines, the state has set its baseline for proficient and above at 35 percent for mathematics and 45 percent for reading.
Low-income students
The percentage of students designated as poor by the school. Generally, eligibility for free or reduced-price lunches has been used as a substitute for income level.
All school/similar school rankings
The Inquirer has identified how the schools performed in two ways: compared with all other test-taking schools in the state, and compared with all schools with similar poverty levels.
In the analysis of scores for similar schools, all the test-taking schools in Pennsylvania were divided into five equal groups based on the percentage of low-income students in 2003-04. Using combined PSSA percentages of students scoring proficient or advanced proficient, The Inquirer then calculated how well a school performed compared with schools with similar levels of poverty. The mean score was used for third grade.
Third-grade scores
For the first time all public-school third graders were required to take the PSSAs in April 2004 and the results were released in December.
The results are presented as school-level scaled scores that range from a low of 1000 to a high of 1600. How this relates to grade level performance levels has not yet been established.
Statewide, 129,829 students were tested, resulting in an average math score of 1341 and an average reading score of 1296.
Performance levels
The state sets student performance levels, designated as advanced proficient, proficient, basic and below basic. The state described the levels as "criteria-based measures that represent how well a student is achieving" in the academic area being tested.
The calculation showing whether a greater or lesser percentage of students tested as proficient or advanced in 2004 compared with 2003 was achieved using arithmetic.
Mean scores and performance levels were not released if fewer than 10 students were tested in the grade.
Quintiles:
1st quintile (top 20% of schools)
2d quintile (top middle 20%)
3d quintile (middle 20%)
4th quintile (bottom middle 20%)
5th quintile (bottom 20%)
NA: Not available
Numbers were rounded.
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