1. Transition of PA State Assessments
Fall 2014
Transition of PA State Assessments
THIS IS AN EXAMPLE ONLY!
2014 Distribution of PSSA Grade 7 Math Scores (higher % of students P/A)
2015
Distribution of PSSA Grade 8 Math Scores
(lower % of students P/A)
We often are asked about the transition of the state assessments to more rigorous assessments aligned to the PA Core Standards…and the effect of that on growth as measured by PVAAS. Let’s look at a visual that will help demonstrate how growth will be measured…and more importantly, how a group of students can still meet the standard for PA Academic Growth even if the % proficient is lower statewide due to a more rigorous assessment.
This first vertical line represents what could be the 2014 distribution of grade 7 scores with scores at the top representing higher achievement while those at the bottom represent lower achievement.
[CLICK]
We now know that fewer students are proficient on the SY14-15 PSSAs, something like we see here possibly.
So let’s now consider a group of grade 7 students that scores here in 2014 then scores on average lower in grade 8 in However remember the distribution of achievement of all students statewide dropped in our example. The question is…is the group of students at the same RELATIVE position in the distribution of statewide scores? That is what PVAAS looks at to determine growth.
Notice in our example that they are…which means this group of students would meet the standard for PA Academic Growth indicated by a green in PVAAS.
Is the group of students (indicated by the yellow star) at the same RELATIVE position in the distribution of statewide scores from SY13-14 to SY14-15?
Yes = Green on PVAAS
Questions?

2. Transition of PA State Assessments
Fall 2014
Transition of PA State Assessments
Higher Achieving
Average Achieving
THIS IS AN EXAMPLE ONLY!
Lower Achieving
2014 Distribution of PSSA Grade 7 Math Scores (higher % of students P/A)
2015
Distribution of PSSA Grade 8 Math Scores
(lower % of students P/A)
[SLIDE CONTAINS ANIMATIONS]
So this would be true if….
[click] the group of students was higher achieving as we see here.
[click] or average achieving, or
[click] if the group of students was a lower achieving group of students.
Is the group of students (indicated by the yellow star) at the same RELATIVE position in the distribution of statewide scores from SY13-14 to SY14-15?
Yes = Green on PVAAS
Questions?

3. Example: Change to more Rigorous Assessment
TN, Same Value-Added Model (EVAAS) as PA
While Pennsylvania does not yet have statewide PVAAS data for SY14-15 to provide actual evidence of what was discussed on the previous slides, here is an example from other state - Tennessee.
Tennessee went through a change in their Algebra I assessment – to a more rigorous Algebra I assessment in SY09-10.
In SY08-09 you can see that the % Proficient was 77%, then in SY09-10 with the more rigorous Algebra I assessment, there were only 41% of the students proficient. The year after, in SY10-11, the % proficient increased to 47%.
However, as you can see on the pie charts---even though the % proficient decreased from to 09-10, the TVAAS growth reporting did not result in more teachers getting proportionally lower value-added scores. IN fact you can see the proportion of teacher receiving each of the scores of 1-5 was relatively consistent throughout this assessment transition.
North Carolina also recently went through a similar transition with their state assessment. Value-Added Reporting was not impacted by the transition of their assessment- very similar to what you see here for Tennessee.
North Carolina recently went through a similar transition with their state assessment.
Value-Added Reporting was not impacted by the transition of their assessment.