How did Centre County schools perform on 2024 standardized tests? See your school’s data
While most states across the country struggle to catch up to pre-pandemic successes, Pennsylvania again observed modest improvements to its standardized test scores.
Centre County’s schools met more benchmarks and growth targets during the 2023-24 testing cycle than the year prior, according to data from the Pennsylvania Department of Education and the Future Ready PA Index, which collects and tracks school progress measures. Across Pennsylvania, overall student proficiency increased in math (40.2%, up from 38.3% in 2022-23) and science (59.2%, up from 58.9% in 2022-23), while English and language arts proficiency fell from 54.5% in 2022-23 to 53.9% this cycle.
After test scores and growth results became available last summer and fall, officials across Centre County’s school districts spent time reviewing overall performance and sharing reports and presentations with school boards and faculty. Testing for the 2024-25 school year’s Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA) exams will begin in late April, while Keystone exams are offered in the winter, spring and summer.
The Centre Daily Times compiled data from the county’s public school standardized tests to see how local schools performed after scores rose last year following years of data gaps and pandemic lows. Here’s a look at how each Centre County school and district tested during the 2023-24 cycle.
How many Centre County schools are meeting standardized testing benchmarks?
Across the board, Centre County’s 30 schools showed some improvement in meeting state benchmarks for Pennsylvania State Assessment scores and the Pennsylvania Value-Added Assessment System (PVAAS).
More Centre County schools met proficiency benchmarks for math (eight schools) and science (14 schools) in the 2023-24 cycle than in the 2022-23 cycle, according to Future Ready PA data. For at least the second straight year, only State High met the proficiency benchmark for English and language arts testing.
At least 20 of the county’s schools met growth benchmarks for English (24), math (20) and science (23), testing data reports. All three figures are improvements over the 2022-23 testing cycle.
The Future Ready PA Index uses Act 13 Building Scores to evaluate school performance by measuring attendance, proficiency and growth while adjusting outcomes based on the number of economically disadvantaged students. The scores help evaluate educator effectiveness between buildings.
State High claimed the top spot among the county’s schools again, while Bellefonte Area High School improved more than 11 points from its last-place finish during the 2022-23 cycle.
Pennsylvania State Assessment scores
The Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA) exams are administered to students in grades 3-8 in English and Math with additional science exams administered in fourth and eighth grades. Keystone exams, another major state assessment, evaluate proficiency in algebra, literature and biology among middle and high school students.
Although some schools failed to meet proficiency goals, nearly all Centre County schools tested better than state averages in English, math and science. Every State College Area School District building and nearly all Penns Valley schools (minus Miles Township Elementary, whose insufficient sample held back a science score) tested above state averages in the three major subjects. Only Bellefonte and Philipsburg-Osceola’s high schools fell below the state average in two subjects.
Notably, this cycle’s testing data does not yet separate State College Area School District’s middle and high school data from the Delta middle and high school programs, which will become their own schools starting in the 2025-26 school year. The move to separate from the district’s middle and high schools will allow Delta’s schools to conduct their own school climate surveys and receive testing data without blending it with non-Delta students.
Here’s a look at each district’s state assessment scores and how they compare to state averages and goals.
PVAAS growth scores
PVAAS examines year-to-year proficiency scores to measure growth in key subjects.
Here’s how testing scores progressed during the 2023-24 cycle in English, math and science across Centre County’s public schools.
While reviewing SCASD’s 2022-24 comprehensive plan for growth and achievement through standardized testing at Jan. 13’s board meeting, some school board members noted stark contrasts in proficiency and growth rates between white students and their minority counterparts. Roughly 46.4% of Black elementary students in the district tested proficiently in math or met growth targets last year, though that figure is significantly higher than Pennsylvania’s 18% average for Black elementary students. About 80.2% of the district’s white elementary students tested proficiently in math or met their growth target.
Danielle Yoder, assistant superintendent of elementary education, said State College schools will continue working to find solutions that address the needs of minority students as the district pursues higher growth rates for all students. District officials are expected to review and share an updated comprehensive plan over the next few months that will include revised goals and targets for student success across demographics and grades.
“I think there’s a lot of root causes,” Yoder said during a presentation at Jan. 13’s board meeting. “We don’t have all the answers, because if we did, we’d be seeing greater improvements... We’re working through that, we’re working through curricular updates to figure out if it’s a curriculum issue. But we really have not identified one root cause.”
Nearly all Bellefonte schools met growth goals for English, math and science during the 2023-24 cycle, with Bellefonte Area Middle School’s math finishing as the lone below-target growth figure. All but the middle school’s math growth rate even outpaced state averages for the cycle.
At Dec. 3’s board meeting, Superintendent Roy Rakszawski said the district placed a high emphasis on improving student testing growth across its six schools.
“The state really provides us with two measures: one is of proficiency, one is of growth,” he said. “They’re both important, but if I had to pick, of course, I’d like to see more growth because that means we’re going in the right direction. Regardless of where we are currently or where we started from, we always want to see as much growth as we can.”
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