This article was originally published in The Notebook. In August 2020, The Notebook became Chalkbeat Philadelphia.
Editor’s Note: Due to a calculation error, the original version of this story said that science scores went up significantly. There were some increases in fourth and eighth grade.
Student performance on Pennsylvania’s suite of standardized tests didn’t change much in 2018.
The results, released Tuesday by the Pennsylvania Department of Education, show no improvement in math and reading tests given annually to elementary and middle school students. Similarly, there was little change in how high school students fared on algebra, literature, and biology Keystone Exams.
Although there was some improvement in individual grades — offset by declines in other grades — PSSA scores in math and english language arts were almost identical to their 2017 counterparts.
In 2018, 61.4 percent of Pennsylvania students tested advanced or proficient in English, compared to 61.2 percent in 2017.
In math, 42.0 percent of students tested advanced or proficient, against 42.6 percent a year ago.
There was some improvement in scores on science tests given to 4th and 8th graders.