Philadelphia students are showing an upward trajectory in key areas over the past three years, such as test scores and attendance, but there is still a lot of room left for improvement, writes Violet Comber-Wilen for Billy Penn at WHYY.
The School District of Philadelphia has released preliminary performance data of its students from 2021 to 2025.
While test scores and attendance are increasing, and student dropouts are declining, reading scores have also seen a slight decrease.
Pennsylvania students are required to take the the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA) for students in grades 3-8 and the Keystone exams in grades 8-11.
The percentage of third graders who scored Proficient or Advanced on the PSSA in English Language Arts increased from about 28 percent in 2021-22 to over 31 percent in 2024-25.
In math, that percentage increased from 20 percent to 33 percent in the same time frame.
Overall, students in grades 3-8 who scored Proficient or Advanced for math increased from 16.5 percent to 25.1 percent. However, reading scores dropped slightly from 34.4 percent to 33.2 percent.
School District of Philadelphia Superintendent Tony B. Watlington called the data “a product of hard and strategic work for teachers, principals and support staff.”
Read more about how Philadelphia students are performing on their standardized tests and the district’s targets at Billy Penn at WHYY.
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