In the 2021-22 school year, the School District of Philadelphia (SDP) transitioned to Star Assessments as the District-wide universal screener for reading and math for all students in grades K-12. Star Assessments can be organized into two categories: computer-adaptive tests (CATs) and curriculum-based measures (CBMs). Star Math CBMs are administered to students in grades K-3. This report examines student participation in and performance on Star Math CBM assessments in the four testing windows during the 2021-22 school year.
In the summer of 2021, the School District of Philadelphia (SDP) redesigned 133 pre-kindergarten to third-grade classrooms into interactive learning environments. Physical renovations and classroom set-ups were completed by the start of the 2021-22 school year. This was the fifth cohort of classrooms to receive renovations and accompanying professional development sessions and materials. This report uses teacher survey data to evaluate teacher satisfaction with the project and perceived benefits to instructional practices and student outcomes.
Academic Parent-Teacher Teams (APTT) is a family engagement program aimed at strengthening family-school partnerships. During meetings held three times a year, teachers share student data, guide data-driven conversations, and provide parents/guardians with timely information and academic resources to support student learning. In this research brief, we looked at implementation of APTT at six schools during the 2021-22 school year.
This report and the accompanying addendum examine fall 2021 Star Reading and Math assessment performance for SDP students who attended 2021 summer programming compared to a matched sample of students who did not attend summer programming.
In fall 2020, all SDP students in grades K-12 attended school virtually due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and students in grades K-5 took the within-year aimswebPlus Reading and Math assessments while students in grades 6-12 took the within-year Star Reading and Math assessments. In fall 2021, students returned to school in person, and all grades K-12 took the within-year Star Reading and Math assessments. Star includes an additional performance group, and the process of categorizing students into performance groups differs between aimswebPlus and Star. This set of reports compares student participation and performance on the within-year assessments in fall 2020 and fall 2021 given this context.
The 2021-22 school year was the first year that the School District of Philadelphia (SDP) administered the Renaissance Star assessments as a universal screening tool to all students in grades K-12. This series of end of year reports provides an in-depth look at participation and performance patterns as measured during the four 2021-22 Star assessment windows (Fall, Winter 1, Winter 2, and Spring).
From 2014-15 through 2020-21, the School District of Philadelphia (SDP) assessed literacy proficiency for K-5 students using aimsweb and aimswebPlus, universal early literacy screening, benchmarking, and progress-monitoring tools from Pearson. This report uses both a cohort analysis and a cross-sectional analysis of aimsweb results to examine the literacy performance from 2014-15 to 2018-19 of three kindergarten cohorts.
When selecting which data to use to monitor progress towards the Board’s Goals & Guardrails, the School District of Philadelphia used prior research that identified relationships between certain data points and school-level outcomes. The selected data points reflect a broad range of specific, measurable characteristics of schools, but they can also be seen as three distinct “sets” of data points reflecting enrollment demographics, school staffing, and school climate. This brief seeks to identify which sets of predictor variables best predict the academic outcome variables and, therefore, provide the best “signals” for identifying groups of schools with common underlying root causes.
The Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA) is comprised of multiple assessment anchors that represent categories of subject matter (skills and concepts). A strength profile (low, medium, high) is assigned for each anchor by weighting the anchor raw score by the difficulty of the items. This report examines the percentage of students who scored in the high, medium, and low strength profiles on each of the 3rd grade ELA PSSA assessment anchors from 2014-15 to 2018-19, identifying differences in strength profile patterns by student demographic group.
The Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA) uses scale scores that correspond to performance tiers (Below Basic, Basic, Proficient, and Advanced). This report examines average scale scores for the 3rd grade ELA PSSA from 2014-15 to 2018-19, identifying differences in scale score patterns by student demographic characteristics and by school.