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Table of Contents

PSSA: Pennsylvania System of State Assessment

Overview of Achievement and Growth
Summative assessment of learning is an important element in monitoring the achievement of our
students. In addition to curriculum and instruction, assessment data provides information on the
effectiveness of the overall educational program. PSSA data for Pine-Richland students within this
report is compared generally to other students in the state and particularly to students scoring in
the top decile, as it is the most relevant and challenging comparator group. These comparisons
provide a context for understanding how well we are educating our students. The performance
levels of our students on the PSSA tests for 2019 and several years prior is presented. This is the
third year since the adoption of the PA Core Academic Standards for the 2015 PSSA that trends
in the achievement of different cohorts of students can be analyzed given the collection of four
years of data points. An adjustment in the format and number of sections for each content area was
made in 2018, leading to a reduction in the number of maximum points per anchor and eligible
content section. In capturing the scores for the 2017 report, great care was taken to ensure
consistent data points were rerun utilizing eMetric for the past years and this attention to detail
persisted into the 2018 analysis. For example, when analyzing data at the 4-6 grade level, one
could select either “Eden Hall Upper Elementary School” or “Pine-Richland School District”. The
“school” data points were utilized in the last three years of the report to reflect students taking part
in our daily instruction at our school, as opposed to students attributed back to the district from
other instructional settings. Since these updates have been made, one might notice slightly different
percentages when comparing the 2017 through 2019 reports to past reports.

The PSSA tests are scored according to the performance levels of:
● Advanced: The advanced level reflects superior academic performance. Advanced work
indicates an in-depth understanding and exemplary display of the skills included in the
Pennsylvania Core Academic Standards.
● Proficient: The proficient level reflects satisfactory academic performance. Proficient
work indicates a solid understanding and adequate display of the skills included in the
Pennsylvania Core Academic Standards.
● Basic: The basic level reflects marginal academic performance. Basic work indicates a
partial understanding and limited display of the skills included in the Pennsylvania Core
Academic Standards.
● Below Basic: The below basic level reflects inadequate academic performance. Below
basic work indicates little understanding and minimal display of the skills included in the
Pennsylvania Core Academic Standards.

For PSSA Math and ELA, data is presented for 2015-2019, the five years in which the revised
standards were assessed through the PSSA administration. The standards assessed on the Science
PSSA have not been revised and multiple years of anchor performance level data is available for

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