State Assessments
PSSA
The annual Pennsylvania System School Assessment (PSSA) is a standards-based, criterion-referenced assessment which provides students, parents, educators and citizens with an understanding of student and school performance related to the attainment of proficiency of the academic standards. These standards in English Language Arts, Mathematics, and Science and Technology identify what a student should know and be able to do at varying grade levels. School districts possess the freedom to design the curriculum and instruction to ensure that students meet or exceed the standards' expectations.
Every Pennsylvania student in grades 3 through 8 is assessed in English Language Arts and Math. Every Pennsylvania student in grades 4 and 8 is assessed in science.
Local Assessments
Local assessments are administered school-wide three times per year: September, January, and May. Dependent upon individual student needs, progress monitoring is administered throughout the school year.
ACADIENCE READING
Acadience Reading is a set of procedures and measures for assessing the acquisition of early literacy skills from kindergarten through sixth grade. They are designed to be short (one minute) fluency measures used to regularly monitor the development of early literacy and early reading skills.
Acadience is comprised of seven measures to function as indicators of phonemic awareness, alphabetic principle, accuracy and fluency with connected text, reading comprehension, and vocabulary. ACADIENCE was designed for use in identifying children experiencing difficulty in the acquisition of basic early literacy skills in order to provide support early and prevent the occurrence of later reading difficulties.
MAZE
MAZE comprehension task, is a group-administered measure of reading comprehension. Students are asked to read a passage silently. In the passage, every seventh word (approximately) is blank, with a maze of options (i.e., three possible word choices for the blank). One of the words in the maze is always correct, and the other two are incorrect. Daze requires students to choose the correct word as they read the passage. Students are given three minutes to work on this task. The score is the number of correct words circled minus half of the number of incorrect words circled.
CLASSROOM DIAGNOSTIC TOOLS (CDTs)
Classroom Diagnostic Tools (CDTs) are based on content assessed by the Keystone Exams and the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA). Although not a predictor for PSSA and Keystone Exam performance, CDTs provide a snapshot on why and how students may still be struggling or exceeding grade and/or course Eligible Content. The CDT data, along with other data, inform instruction in a timely and efficient manner.
CDTs are available for use in the classroom through the school year on a voluntary basis. They provide real-time results, ensuring valid and reliable measures, of student's skills. They also highlight student strengths and areas of need.
DIAGNOSTIC DECODING SURVEYS (DDS)
Diagnostic Decoding Surveys are an easy and efficient way to determine when students are having word-level reading difficulties impairing their comprehension.
The Beginning Decoding Survey (DDS) assesses how well students are reading words they should have mastered by the end of first grade:
- High-frequency words
- Single syllable words with short vowels, digraphs, and two-sound blends
The Advanced Decoding Survey (DDS) assesses the decoding skills students should have mastered by the end of third grade:
- Single syllable words with short vowels and more advanced phonics patterns (e.g. trigraphs, three-sound blends)
- Single syllable words with advanced vowel patterns
- Multisyllable words (real and nonsense)