• Welcome to Pennsbury Data, Assessment & Accountability

     

    Educational Accountability in Pennsylvania

    Pennsylvania’s accountability system is administered by the Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE), Division of Assessment and Accountability (DAA), Bureau of Curriculum, Assessment, and Instruction. DAA is responsible for the development, administration and reporting of the state's PSSA and Keystone assessments.

    In Pennsylvania, the Future Ready PA Index is the state’s accountability system. The Future Ready PA Index uses a dashboard model to highlight how schools are performing and making progress on multiple indicators. The reporting system moves beyond a single, summative score to increase transparency around school and student group performance. Future Ready PA Index provides publicly accessible data on academic achievement, academic growth, high school graduation rate, regular attendance (related to chronic absenteeism), college and career readiness, and information on English Learner proficiency, among other indicators. Although there are many indicators, PDE’s focus is on the Statewide Assessment Measures, which include English Language Arts (ELA), Math and Science for the PSSA and PASA, and the Algebra, Literature and Biology Keystone exams data across eleven subgroups. For more information on the Future Ready PA Index, visit the PDE website.

    District Assessments

    Assessing student learning documents knowledge and skills that students gain over a specific period of time using measurable standards and benchmarks. The Pennsbury School District staff utilizes summative, formative, benchmark, and diagnostic tests to measure student growth. Administrators and teachers consider data from a variety of sources as part of a Multi-Tiered System of Support (MTSS).  District staff also considers information from two state-mandated assessments, the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment and the Keystone Exams, for student progress analysis and during curriculum review.

    PSSA

    Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA) includes assessments in English Language Arts and Math which are taken by students in grades 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8. Students in grades 4 and 8 participate in the Science PSSA.  The English Language Arts and Math PSSAs include items that are consistent with the Assessment Anchors/Eligible Content aligned to the Pennsylvania Core Standards in English Language Arts and Mathematics.  The Science PSSA includes items that are aligned to the Assessment Anchors/Eligible Content aligned to the Pennsylvania Academic Standards for Science. The Pennsylvania Department of Education states that the PSSA “measures how well students have achieved in reading, mathematics, science and writing according to Pennsylvania’s world-class academic standards.” Reading and mathematics components of the PSSA are administered to students in Grades 3 through 8. In addition, the state assesses students in Grades 4 and 8 in science. All scores fall into four categories: Advanced, Proficient, Basic, and Below Basic.

    Keystone Exams

    Keystone Exams are end–of-course assessments in designed to evaluate proficiency in academic content areas.  The Keystone Exams are: (1) high school accountability assessments for federal and state purposes, and (2) part of the system of high school graduation requirements for students beginning with the class of 2022.  The Algebra I and Literature Keystone Exams include items written to the Assessment Anchors/Eligible Content aligned to the Pennsylvania Core Standards in Math and English Language Arts.  The Biology Keystone Exam includes items written to the Assessment Anchor/Eligible Content aligned to the enhanced Pennsylvania Academic Standards for Science.  In compliance with Act 158 (link to Act 158), students must demonstrate college and/or career readiness as a requirement for graduation.  The most common pathway to meet this requirement is achieving proficiency in the Algebra 1, Biology, and Literature Keystone Exams.

    For more information regarding testing, please visit the District testing page found here. 

    October Enrollment Report

    Please click the link to view the October Enrollment Report.