PA State System of Assessment (PSSA)

The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 requires that all students in grades 3-8 and 11 be proficient in reading and math by the year 2014.  The Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA), a standards-based and criterion-referenced assessment, is administered annually to measure a student's academic performance, as well as the degree to which school programs enable students to meet the standards. All students in grades 3 through 8 and 11 are assessed in reading and math. Students in grades 5, 8, and 11 are also assessed in writing. For students with disabilities, the IEP team must determine whether the student will take the PSSA with or without accommodations, or whether the student is eligible for the PA Alternate System of Assessment (PASA).

Many resource materials including the Accommodations Guidelines Booklet, Assessment Anchor Content Standards, Item Samplers, and Item Banks, are made available on the Pennsylvania Department of Educations website.  These materials have been developed to assist school personnel in preparing students for the PSSA.  Additionally, several tools to help schools and districts interpret achievement on the PSSA are also available.  A new web-based data analysis tool, Pennsylvania Value Added Assessment System (PVAAS), can be used by schools to interpret PSSA results and assess academic progress over time.