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Wallingford-Swarthmore reports strong 2025 state assessment results but racial and income gaps persist
Summary
District officials said overall 2025 PSSA and Keystone results show high achievement and growth across the Wallingford-Swarthmore School District, but leaders emphasized persistent gaps for Black/African American, economically disadvantaged and special education student groups and pledged targeted follow-up.
Wallingford-Swarthmore School District officials presented 2025 state assessment results on Nov. 20, saying the district posted high overall achievement and growth while acknowledging continuing proficiency gaps for some student groups.
Leslie Fatt, a member of the district’s Office of Teaching, Learning and Innovation, told the board the presentation covered achievement (PSSA and Keystone), growth (PVAAS/PVAS), the Pennsylvania Future Ready Index and building-level scores. “WSSD students are high performing,” Fatt said, and “on average, they outperformed statewide results for advanced and proficient scores.”
On growth, Fatt said the district largely met or exceeded PVAAS expectations across grades and student groups, with a substantial portion of district charts showing blue or green on the growth visuals. She summarized building-level ACT 13 scores as unusually strong, driven by what she called a “trifecta” of high achievement, high growth and high student-group growth.
Fatt also highlighted disaggregated outcomes. She said the district’s Black/African American, economically disadvantaged and special education groups had lower percentages of students scoring proficient or advanced compared with the district average, and that meeting growth targets had not yet eliminated historical achievement gaps.
Fatt gave specific figures for banked Keystone scores for the current senior cohort, saying 82.5% of seniors were proficient or advanced in literature and 72.1% were proficient in math by the end of their junior year. She explained that Keystone “banked” scores use each student’s best attempt through junior year and therefore can differ from single-test snapshots.
Board members thanked presenters and asked for more detailed action plans and committee-level follow-ups. Dr. Johnson said the district will present deeper analyses and implementation steps to the Educational Affairs Committee in coming months. A public commenter asked for clarification about a $2,568,000 figure shown in presentation materials; the board said they would follow up to clarify what that number represented.
The district said additional, public-facing data (the Pennsylvania Future Ready Index) typically posts in mid-to-late November and will provide a dashboard of achievement, growth, attendance and graduation indicators.
