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Pennsylvania state officials have proposed changing how they score students’ performance on state math and reading tests, making it easier for students to be considered “advanced.”
The proposal, which Pennsylvania Department of Education officials shared with the state’s Board of Education Thursday, would have implications for how the state measures student achievement and schools’ success, and would apply to tests students took months ago.
It comes after months of uncertainty over delayed test results in Philadelphia, where families and teachers have repeatedly asked officials to release the scores they usually get in August. State officials acknowledged the department’s cut score review contributed to the wait.
“This delayed reporting. It’s not great timing,” Brian Campbell, director of the Department of Education’s bureau of curriculum, assessment, and instruction, told board members Thursday. But he said the state was overdue in updating score thresholds set more than a decade ago, and this would create “a new baseline.”
Students take state tests every spring to evaluate whether they meet grade-level standards. Students who score above certain thresholds are considered “proficient” or “advanced,” while those who do not meet those minimums are rated “basic” or “below basic.”
Those categories provide officials, families, and educators with a measure of student performance separate from schools’ grading systems. A presentation shared during the meeting said the new score minimums would mean the number of students deemed proficient would “remain statistically consistent with historical expectations.” But changing the cut scores will make it difficult to compare student performance with previous years.
Under the proposal, students would still need a score of at least 1,000 on PSSA math and reading tests to be deemed proficient, which was also the cutoff under the previous scoring system. However, the minimum scores needed to be considered advanced would fall for nearly all grades.
Campbell said the changes would result in more students classified as advanced. The department’s presentation said the changes would have “mixed impacts” on the percentage of students classified as below basic.
The state board is expected to vote on the proposal Nov. 19, which would change thresholds for both the K-8 focused Pennsylvania System of School Assessment, or PSSA, and the high school Keystone tests.
A Philadelphia school district spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment on the proposal.
Philly district officials have said since August that state test scores have been “on hold” by the state, but they expect to release them in November. The delay has taken a toll on families seeking spots in the city’s most selective high schools, who do not yet know whether they are eligible for some schools’ lotteries, with applications due Nov. 24.
New cut scores would change decade-old thresholds
The state last changed its score thresholds for PSSA math and reading tests in 2015 as part of an overhaul of its educational standards. Officials said at the time the aim was to be more rigorous.
The state changed cut scores for the statewide science test earlier this year after overhauling standards for that subject.
Campbell told board members “it was always the intention” that reading and math standards would also be reviewed. But he said adopting new standards for reading and math is still “years away.” The department is recommending new cut scores in the meantime, he said.
“The way students learn has changed, the way people interpret the content has changed, and the way the state interprets the performance levels may have changed,” Campbell said.
Nearly 90 Pennsylvania educators worked with the department on the review, Campbell said.
If the board adopts the recommended scores later this month, the Department of Education will share final school-level scores with districts in the following days, according to a Thursday email from Education Secretary Carrie Rowe obtained by Chalkbeat.
State-level assessment scores are expected to be released in “early 2027,” Rowe said.
Rebecca Redelmeier is a reporter at Chalkbeat Philadelphia. She writes about public schools, early childhood education, and issues that affect students, families, and educators across Philadelphia. Contact Rebecca at rredelmeier@chalkbeat.org.
