Here’s what the results released earlier this month show, including how area schools fared.
Student Charlie McBride talks with Pennsylvania Department of Education Secretary Khalid N. Mumin at Anna L. Lingelbach Elementary School in Philadelphia on Tuesday.After plummeting during the pandemic, the latest Pennsylvania standardized test scores show signs of progress: Year over year, math scores are up.
Jonathan Supovitz, professor of leadership and policy at the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education, called fourth-grade math scores a “bright spot” — with student proficiency rising to 46.5% this year from 42.5% last year, returning to pre-pandemic levels. “If you have to spend too much time thinking about the mechanics of writing,” you can’t devote as much to the other skills writing requires — from phonics to critical thinking, said DeCarlo, who is hoping to see a breakdown of writing scores from the English tests.
The school’s third graders moved from 26% to 71% proficient on English assessments over three years; the entire school jumped from 31% to 39% passing English assessments. But Lingelbach is a typical Philadelphia school that has a fair amount of mobility. Waddell had eight new sixth graders enroll in the school this year — all of whom came in reading at below basic. Many students enrolling now have big gaps; they were either simply not attending school or attending cyber school, and there’s a long way to go to bring them up to speed, Waddell said.