Table of Contents
School Value-Added

How This Report Helps You

This report enables you to select data of interest, assess trends over time, and compare results. Use the filters on the left to explore growth and achievement data. Depending on the assessment, achievement is reported in Normal Curve Equivalents (NCEs) or scale scores and does not reflect proficiency level.

For step-by-step instructions on using the filters, see Interacting with the Report.

About Value-Added Reports

School Value-Added reports provide reliable measures of the average academic growth a school's students made in each tested grade and subject or Keystone content area. The growth measures indicate how successful the school was in helping students meet the growth standard. The value-added reports can help educators identify relative strengths and areas of concern across grades and subjects. When sufficient data is available, the reports include three years of growth measures and a three-year average growth measure. Examining patterns and trends across years can offer important insights into the academic growth of groups of students for the school's programs.

PVAAS uses PDE's Data Attribution Rules to determine how to assign students to schools. A minimum of 11 students is required to generate a district or school value-added report for a tested grade and subject or Keystone content area.

Students who are identified in the state assessment booklet as one or more of the following are excluded from the value-added analyses.

  • Not enrolled for a full academic year (by Oct 1)
  • First year of English language

In addition, students who took the Pennsylvania Alternate Assessment (PASA) or who previously performed at a proficient or advanced level on the same Keystone content area are excluded.

It's important to view the value-added reports in conjunction with the diagnostic reports, which display patterns of growth for groups of students at different achievement levels.

How We Measure Growth

The model we use to calculate growth measures depends on the assessments administered. Concept of Growth provides additional details.

Growth Standard Methodology

This analytic model is used for subjects that are assessed in consecutive grades.

  • PSSA Math and ELA in grades 4 through 8
  • Acadeince (DIBELS Next), aimsweb, DIBELS, EasyCBM, Exact Path, FastBridge, i-Ready, MAP, STAR
Predictive Methodology

This analytic model is used for subjects that are assessed in non-consecutive or consecutive grades, including when students move from one assessment type to another:

  • PSSA Science in grades 4 and 8
  • Keystone Algebra I, Biology, and Literature
  • All CDT assessments
  • AP Biology, AP Calculus AB, AP English Language and Composition, AP English Literature and Composition, AP Psychology, AP Statistics, AP United States Government and Politics, and AP United States History

Making Comparisons

Use options in the filter panel to add data from other years, tests and subjects, LEA/districts and schools, and more. Your options might be limited to the data that you have access to.

Up to 10 additional LEA/districts or schools, can be viewed in the report using the Add Comparison option under the LEA/Districts and Schools section in the filter panel.

Downloading Value-Added Reports

Value-Added reports for a specific school or LEA/district can be saved as an Excel spreadsheet (.xlsx format) by clicking on the Download Report button in the upper right corner of the report. A dialogue box opens where the filename can be determined. Click Download Report to save the report to your computer. The resulting spreadsheet will contain value-added data for the LEA/district or school selected from the main drop-down menu at the top of the filter panel.