Pittsburgh Public Schools shows modest spring gains in third-grade math but large subgroup gaps remain

PITTSBURGH — Superintendent Dr. Wayne Walters told the Pittsburgh Public Schools Education Committee on May 13 that spring Classroom Diagnostic Tool (CDT) results show 21.5% of this year’s third-graders are performing at or above grade level, an increase from the winter administration.

The district is tracking toward an end-of-year goal of 33.3% proficiency on state assessments for the 2024–25 school year, but Walters cautioned that gaps between subgroups remain wide and additional work is required to reach the target. “We want students not only to know math, but to understand it deeply, to persevere when it gets hard, and to see themselves as capable mathematicians,” Walters said during the committee’s monthly goal-monitoring presentation.

The presentation differentiated two CDT measures district staff use: the percentage of students performing at or above grade level (21.5% on the spring CDT) and a separate “likely proficient or advanced” calculation, which Walters said was 8% this spring (down from 9.1% the prior year and 11.4% the year before). Walters attributed some movement in the data to this year’s adoption of a new, problem-based curriculum, Illustrative Mathematics, replacing Go Math.

District leaders reported growth from winter to spring on the CDT for…