Posted on February 18, 2022
Categories: aimswebPlus, assessments, PSSA, Star

Due to the global Covid-19 pandemic, the School District of Philadelphia closed school buildings on March 13, 2020 and pivoted to 100% virtual education for the remainder of the 2019-20 school year. Students then started the 2020-21 school year 100% virtual and continued remote education until a phased, hybrid return started on March 8, 2021. Teaching and learning continued during the pandemic, albeit very differently than the usual at-school, in-person instruction. This brief describes which District-wide tests, among those regularly administered by the Office of Assessment each year, were administered during the 2020-21 school year. For those tests that were administered, details about student participation are provided.

For more details about all district-wide assessments administered in 2020-21, see the Assessments Overview 2020-21 slide deck.

Correction: The Advanced Placement exam participation numbers originally reported in this brief were based on data pulled for District and Alternative students from the College and Career Readiness Qlik application on February 10, 2022. These numbers were updated since, and the Advanced Placement Exams section has been updated accordingly. The last sentence in the Advanced Placement Exams section on p. 5 originally appeared as follows: The number of students who took AP tests in 2020-21 is 3,030 compared to 2,949 in 2019-20 and 3,531 in 2018-19. This sentence was updated in May 2023 and now reads: The number of students who took AP tests in 2020-21 is 3,802 compared to 3,784 in 2019-20 and 4,094 in 2018-19.