Non-parametric trend analysis of SCASD PSSA performance

Methodology:

Review Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA) math and reading scores from AY 20012015 (public schools only) 1. The original data sets 2 are found at:
http://www.pde.state.pa.us/a_and_t/cwp/browse.asp?a=3&bc=0&c=27525&a_and_tNav=|633|&a_and_
tNav=|

Rank the percentage of students who were classified either proficient or advanced at each grade
level 3 in descending order. Thus, a lower rank indicates better performance relative to other districts.

Report SCASD rank (out of 501 districts; 500 districts after 2009).

Non-parametric analysis is cut point agnostic and can be compared across years

Data:
Math
Grade

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

60

82

2007

91

67

145

313

91

40
91

114

145

156

4
5

2006

6
7

2008

2009

2010

216

174

124

126

55

157

118

107

184

199

185

99

123

86

265

194

2011
136

2012

2013

2014

2015

88

93

47

85

81

76

53

106

114

77

55

100

78

97

93

159

114

131

73

124

49

42

46

51

39

29

70

37

58

97

77

113

161

40

52

53

92

54

11

27

11

27

22

17

22

23

81

36

35

30

Reading/Literacy
Grade

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

56

37

74

89

70

85

96

107

136

100

78

58

25

84

87

80

59

85

119

125

46

74

126

101

92

44

82

92

58

89

135

67

42

35

48

92

94

99

69

71

103

102

4
5

115

105

6
7

2014

2015

56

23

39

20

25

31

26

33

71

48

30

49

36

77

72

68

61

42

45

60

28

49

85

11

90

36

63

100

69

41

35

48

119

17

49

46

The analysis was restricted to this millennium. PSSA data are available prior to 2001, but PDE did not summarize them
at the district level.
2
2013 & 2014 PDE data are not available in a form amenable to this analysis. However, links to 2013 data obtained via a
RTK request from the Senate Education Committee are provided at http://thenotebook.org/blog/158088/pennsylvaniakeystone-pssa-test-results-in-spreadsheet-format.
3
PDE did not classify performance for Grade 3 in AY 2003 and 2004. For the purpose of this analysis, the raw scores
were ranked in these two instances. Grade 11 PSSAs were discontinued in 2012-2013.