Danville Area SD reports strong end-of-year gains in math; reading growth uneven

Danville Area School District leaders presented end-of-year diagnostic results Tuesday showing sizable percentile gains in math across primary, elementary and middle-school grade levels, and mixed results in English language arts that the district plans to address this summer.

District staff emphasized growth measures rather than one-time achievement cut points. "The cohorts have improved their percentile rank nationally between the beginning of the year and the end of the year," presenter Mrs. Delgado said, referring to primary-school reading and math diagnostics.

Why it matters: the district is using diagnostic growth (percentile rank) to guide tiered interventions and summer planning so students begin 2025–26 with supports already in place.

The primary school presentation said kindergarten through second grade made strong reading progress: second grade moved from about 40% on grade level at the start of the year to roughly 80% by year end, and first grade rose to about 50% on grade level, according to Delgado. She added that "over 50 percent of our second graders who needed intervention services no longer need intervention support by the end of the year." The primary school reported expanding targeted reading interventionists and carrying student support plans forward to the receiving elementary (Liberty Valley) to avoid students "fall[ing] through the cracks."

At Liberty Valley, district leaders reported large percentile gains in mathematics, with the presenter saying fourth-grade performance rose from roughly the 50th percentile to about the 80th percentile by year end. Liberty Valley staff attributed gains to moving high-performing teachers to grades that feed lower-performing cohorts and to weekly grade-level data meetings.

Middle-school presenters also described math gains of about 20 percentile points from the beginning to the end of the year on MAP assessments. "Every grade level bumped up something like 20 percentile points," the middle-school presenter said. They cautioned that the percentile-based diagnostic differs from PSSA proficiency measures: MAP percentiles rank students nationally at a point in time, while PSSAs are criterion-based proficiency tests to be released later in the summer.

District leaders were less sanguine about ELA and writing results. Presenters said reading and writing remain a work in progress at multiple grade levels, with particular attention needed at upper elementary and fifth grade. "We're not where we need to be. We aren't. But we . . . have plans in place," one presenter said, describing summer meetings and curriculum review work.

Planned follow-up: the district will conduct data-team reviews this summer, refine small-group interventions, maintain monthly grade-level meetings, and begin the 2025–26 year with pre-identified intervention groups. The board was told a comprehensive presentation of PSSA, Keystone and AP results will be made in August when state scores are available.

Speakers quoted in this article spoke during the academic affairs agenda (end-of-year data items). No formal board decision on instruction was recorded at the meeting; presenters described staff actions and planned administrative follow-up.