District's PVAS results show growth at extremes, lag in middle quintiles, officials say

Executive Director Karen Ryan walked the board through Pennsylvania Value Added Assessment System (PVAS) results and explained what the color-coded growth indicators mean for instruction and equity.

"When you're looking at the colors' the top two colors are light blue and dark blue. When we see light blue and dark blue, that is awesome," Ryan said, describing those colors as evidence of moderate to significant growth above the gross standard. She said green indicates the district met the expected one-year growth and yellow/red indicate below-standard growth.

Ryan said the district's math PVAS results show the district is growing students in the lowest quintile in grades five through eight and maintaining students in the highest quintile, but that second—fourth quintile students are not experiencing consistent growth, which helps explain stagnant proficiency rates. "This trend again speaks for our need to address the multi-tiered systems of support," she said, urging stronger tier 1 instruction and school-level instructional leadership meetings to translate PVAS findings into classroom practice.

Ryan said PVAS will be used at school and teacher levels for targeted instructional leadership conversations, and that the data will feed into the strategic planning process to prioritize resources and supports.

The board asked whether high-school results combine both Erie High and Collegiate Academy; Ryan said the slides showed districtwide data but that school-level and teacher-level breakdowns could be produced on request.