- Using PVAAS for a Purpose
- Key Concepts
- PEERS
- About PEERS
- Understanding the PEERS pages
- Evaluation List
- Evaluation Summary
- Evaluation Forms
- Add Educator
- Add Evaluator
- Manage Access
- Add a school-level Educator to PEERS
- Add a district-level Educator to PEERS
- Add the Evaluator permission to a user's account
- Remove the Evaluator permission from a district user's account
- Add the Evaluator or Administrative Evaluator permission to a district user's account
- Remove the Administrative Evaluator permission from a district user's account
- Remove an Educator from PEERS
- Restore a removed Educator
- Assign an Educator to a district-level Evaluator
- Assign an Educator to an Evaluator
- Unassign an Educator from an Evaluator
- Assign an Educator to a school
- Unassign an Educator from a school
- Link a PVAAS account to an Educator
- Working with Evaluations
- Switch between Educator and Evaluator
- View an evaluation
- Use filters to display only certain evaluations
- Print the Summary section of an evaluation
- Understanding evaluation statuses
- Determine whether other evaluators have access to an evaluation
- Lock or unlock an evaluation
- Save your changes
- Mark an evaluation as Ready for Conference
- Release one or more evaluations
- Download data from released evaluations to XLSX
- Make changes to an evaluation marked Ready for Conference
- Reports
- School Reports
- LEA/District Reports
- Teacher Reports
- Student Reports
- Comparison Reports
- Human Capital Retention Dashboard
- Roster Verification (RV)
- Getting Started
- All Actions by Role
- All Actions for Teachers
- All Actions for School Administrators or Roster Approvers
- Manage teachers' access to RV
- Assign other school users the Roster Approver permission
- View a teacher's rosters
- Take control of a teacher's rosters
- Add and remove rosters for a teacher
- Copy a roster
- Apply a percentage of instructional time to every student on a roster
- Batch print overclaimed and underclaimed students
- Remove students from a roster
- Add a student to a roster
- Return a teacher's rosters to the teacher
- Approve a teacher's rosters
- Submit your school's rosters to the district
- All Actions for district admin or district roster approvers
- Assign other LEA/district users the Roster Approver permission
- Take control of a school's rosters
- View a teacher's rosters
- View the history of a teacher's rosters
- Edit a teacher's rosters
- Add and remove rosters for a teacher
- Copy a roster
- Apply a percentage of instructional time to every student on a roster
- Batch print overclaimed and underclaimed students
- Return a school's rosters to the school
- Approve rosters that you have verified
- Submit your district's rosters
- Understanding the RV Pages
- Viewing the History of Actions on Rosters
- Additional Resources
- Admin Help
- General Help
LEA/District Search
Understanding the Report
The list of LEAs/districts available in this report include charter schools and other LEA/district that received LEA/District Value-Added reports.
Reference LEA/District
The Reference LEA/District table displays data for the currently selected LEA/district, including
- Minimum and maximum grade tested with PSSA or Keystone
- Percentages of students in several demographic categories
- Graduation rate, if applicable
The demographic information is calculated annually from the state assessment administration files received from the assessment vendor.
Comparison LEA/Districts
When you first navigate to the report, the list displays all LEA/districts that have data for the currently selected assessment.
The LEA/districts are listed by Average Growth Index, from highest to lowest. To reorder the list, click any column heading. To reverse the order in which the LEA/districts are listed, click the same column heading again.
The reference LEA/district appears at the top of the list and again in its appropriate place in the list based on the currently selected order. In both places, the reference LEA/district is highlighted in yellow so it can be identified easily.
LEA/District Name
Each LEA/district name is a link. Click the link to select a LEA/district as the reference LEA/district.
Tested Grades
The PSSA ELA and PSSA Math assessments are administered in grades 3-8, and the PSSA Science assessment is administered in grades 4 and 8. Keystone exams are not grade-specific assessments; they are end of course assessments administered in Algebra I, Literature, and Biology. The Tested Grades represents the grade range for students who tested at the LEA/district.
Growth Measure
Each growth measure is a precise, conservative estimate of the academic growth a LEA/district's students have made, on average, in tested grades and subjects or Keystone content areas. The growth measures displayed here are the most recent year's growth measures from the LEA/district's Value-Added report.
The growth measure is calculated differently for PSSA math and ELA than it is for PSSA science and the Keystone assessments.
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.
Average Growth Index
The Average Growth Index is a reliable measure of whether a LEA/district's students exceeded, met, or fell short of the growth standard in each subject or Keystone content area. This value takes into account the amount of growth the students have made, on average, as well as the strength of the evidence for that measure. Specifically, the index is the growth measure divided by its standard error. Because the standard error is accounted for, and because all the index values are on the same scale, the Average Growth Index is an appropriate measure to use for the comparison. Growth Measures by themselves should not be used for this purpose.
For assessments analyzed with the growth standard methodology, the Average Growth Index represents the growth of students in the selected subject across all grades in which value-added measures were provided in the most recent year.
For assessments analyzed with the predictive methodology, the Average Growth Index represents the growth of students in the selected grade and subject or Keystone content area in the most recent year.
The Average Growth Index is color-coded based on the same color-coding rules that are used in the Value-Added reports.
The legend at the bottom of the report provides guidance for interpreting the colors.
| Growth Color Indicator | Average Growth Index | Interpretation |
|---|---|---|
| Well Above | 2.00 or higher | Significant evidence that the LEA/district exceeded the growth standard |
| Above | Between 1.00 and 2.00 | Moderate evidence that the LEA/district exceeded the growth standard |
| Meets | Between -1.00 and 1.00 | Evidence that the LEA/district exceeded the growth standard |
| Below | Between -1.00 and -2.00 | Moderate evidence that the LEA/district did not meet the growth standard |
| Well Below | -2.00 or lower | Significant evidence that the LEA/district did not meet the growth standard |
Percentage of Students Proficient
Percentage of Students Proficient on PSSA and PASA, or on a Keystone exam. For Keystone content areas, this represents the actual score when they took the Key stone exam.
Percentage of Students Advanced
Percentage of Students Advanced on PSSA and PASA, or on a Keystone exam. For Keystone content areas, this represents the actual score when they took the Keystone exam.
Total Percentage of Students Proficient or Advanced
Total Percentage of Students Proficient or Advanced on PSSA and PASA, or on a Keystone exam. For Keystone content areas, this represents the actual score when they took the Keystone exam.
Restrict Search
By default, the Comparison LEA/District list includes all LEA/districts that have data for the selected subject or Keystone content area. You can narrow this list to include only LEA/districts that meet demographic criteria of interest to you.
Start by clicking restrict search above the list of comparison LEA/districts.
Restricting by Tested Grades
To restrict the list to LEA/districts that have data for selected grades, check the box next to Tested Grades. The minimum and maximum tested grades for the reference LEA/district will appear in the table. You can keep this range or change it. The search results will include only LEA/districts whose minimum and maximum tested grades fall within the range you define.
Restricting by Demographics
To restrict by any of the demographics listed, check the appropriate box. The reference LEA/district's data for that demographic appears in the table. You'll want to define a range that includes the reference LEA/district's value. Keep in mind that a very narrow range is likely to include few LEA/districts for comparison.
After you've selected the restrictions for your search, click Submit.
The Comparison LEA/Districts list now includes only those LEA/districts that meet the criteria you defined.
To change or remove your search restrictions, use the buttons above the list of LEA/districts.