PVAAS
PVAAS: Measuring growth in achievement
The Pennsylvania Value-Added Assessment System (PVAAS) is a state measure of growth in student achievement. Why measure growth?
Students start at different places when they enter a classroom or school. PVAAS uses mathematical modeling to create a prediction about how a child might score on a standardized test in the current year based on how they’ve done on past state assessments, demographics, and other factors. Growth measures like PVAAS can give us a clearer picture of how much students are growing academically and how a school and its teachers are contributing to that academic growth. Achievement data—such as PSSA or Keystone scores— show how well a student performed at one point in time. PVAAS measures a student’s growth over time.
A simple way to think about it: If a school is meeting the growth standard, then students overall are making a year’s worth of progress in a year’s worth of time. If students score above or well above the prediction, they are making more than a year’s worth of progress in that time. If scores are below or well below, students in that school are making less progress than what would be expected based on the prediction. By taking into account both students’ academic achievement and their growth, schools and districts can gain a more comprehensive picture of their own effectiveness in raising student achievement.
Here we show PVAAS results for Math, English Language Arts (ELA), and Science for each district school from 2022-23, the most recent year available.
For updated results, growth by grade level, and other detailed information, visit the PA Department of Education PVAAS resource page: pvaas.sas.com. The website offers Value-Added School and District reports; Growth of Student Groups reports; and Comparison reports including interactive scatterplots where you can track growth against various other indicators.
Have questions? Contact A+ Schools at 412-256-8536 or info@aplusschools.org with any questions related to Pittsburgh Public Schools’ PVAAS data.