Department of Education Releases 2019 Statewide PSSA, Keystone Exam Results

Harrisburg, PA – The Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) today released statewide results from the 2019 administration of the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA) and Keystone Exams. PSSAs and Keystone Exams are used as part of Pennsylvania’s statewide accountability system, as required under the federal Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA).

“Since taking office, Governor Wolf has emphasized that student readiness and success is measured in many ways and that standardized tests represent just one tool to help identify student progress and achievement,” said Secretary of Education Pedro A. Rivera. “Under this direction, the department has implemented several steps to allow teachers to spend more of their valuable time in classrooms instructing students and to utilize data to inform instruction and less time administering standardized tests.”

In 2018, the time required to take the PSSAs was reduced by an average of two days and this year the testing window was reduced from three to two weeks and moved to later in the school year. These changes provided students with additional, critical classroom hours and school districts with the needed flexibility in planning their school calendars.

PSSAs are administered in grades 3 through 8 for both English Language Arts and Math; and grades 4 and 8 in Science.

The Keystone Exams are end-of-course assessments in Literature, Biology, and Algebra I. Students’ best scores are “banked” and reported in statewide data when the student is in grade 11.

Building level PSSA and Keystone Exam results will be released when the Future Ready PA IndexOpens In A New Window is updated later this fall.

Launched last year, the Future Ready PA Index is a comprehensive reporting system for school districts, expanding the indicators used to measure performance and extending Governor Wolf’s comprehensive approach to ensuring student and school success.

The index uses a dashboard approach to present school-level data that features a broad range of indicators, such as English language acquisition, career readiness benchmark indicators, access to advanced coursework, and chronic absenteeism.

NOTE – 2019 PSSA results and 2019 Keystone results are below and can be found on PDE’s website.Opens In A New Window

2019 PSSA Mathematics Results