Table of Contents

Diagnostic Summary Report

Understanding the Report

Growth

A simple growth measure is created for each achievement group. These values indicate the amount of academic growth students in the group made, on average, in the selected grade and subject or Keystone content area. Use caution when interpreting these growth measures. Keep in mind that students are not weighted based on the teacher's instructional responsibility as they are for value-added reports. The values in this report are not the result of the statistically rigorous analyses that generate growth measures for the value-added reports. For more information, see Technical Details.

Color Coding

The slices of the chart are color-coded to indicate whether the data suggests that students in each achievement group exceeded, met, or fell short of the growth standard.

For information about interpreting the charts, see Interpreting the Data.

Color Indicator

Growth Measure Compared to the Growth Standard

Interpretation

Light Blue

At least one standard error above

Moderate evidence that the group exceeded the growth standard.

Green

Between one standard error above and one standard error below

Evidence that the group met the growth standard.

Yellow

More than one standard error below

Moderate evidence that the group did not meet the growth standard.

White

N/A

The group did not have enough students to generate a growth measure.

Standard Error

All growth measures on the PVAAS reports are estimates. All estimates have some amount of measurement error, which is known as the standard error. This value defines a confidence band around the growth measure, which describes how strong the evidence is that the group of students exceeded, met, or fell short of the growth standard.

For more information about standard errors, see Growth Measures and Standard Errors.

Student Count

These rows list the number of assessments in each group.

For more information, see Technical Details.

Percentage of Students

These values represent the percentage of this teacher's students who were in each achievement group. For example, if the teacher taught a relatively large number of higher-achieving students, the percentage for that group would be larger. If the teacher taught a relatively large number of lower-achieving students, the percentage for that group would be larger.

Achievement Groups

For information on how students are placed into and excluded from achievement groups, see Technical Details.

Filtering by Student Group

By default, the report includes all the teacher's students in the selected grade and subject, Keystone content area, or college readiness test who had sufficient data. Use the Add Student Groups filter to view the report for a subset of students. The list of filters is based on the demographic data in the state assessment files.

To filter the list of students included in the report, click Filter by: Student Group above the graph. In the Student Groups window, you can choose any combination of race, sex, and demographic groups.

If you choose more than one group within a category, the report includes students who are in either group. For example, if you choose Black and Hispanic, the report includes both Black students and Hispanic students.

If you choose multiple groups across categories, the report includes only students who are in the selected groups in all categories. For example, if you choose Male and IEP, the report includes only males who are identified as receiving special education services.

When you are finished making selections, click Submit. The report includes only those groups of students you selected.

Even when viewing a filtered group of students, placement of students into the achievement groups is still based on students' relative achievement to students in the reference group in the selected grade and subject or Keystone content area.

To remove a demographic from your list of filters, click the X next to the demographic. To remove all demographic filters at once, click Student Groups. In the Student Groups window, click Clear and then Submit. The report now includes all students in the selected grade and subject or Keystone content area.

More Information

Self-Reflection Guide for PVAAS Teacher Reporting

PVAAS Virtual Shelf