Pennsylvania

Understanding PSSA/Keystone Performance Levels + Free PLC Data Analysis Template

When Pennsylvania assessment results arrive, educators often focus on the headline numbers: proficiency rates, school performance metrics, and accountability outcomes. While those figures are important, they only tell part of the story.

Pennsylvania‘s Performance Level Descriptors (PLDs) provide a framework for understanding how effectively students are mastering the Pennsylvania Core Standards and where instructional resources should be focused next. The four performance levels (Below Basic, Basic, Proficient, and Advanced) help schools identify learning needs, evaluate instructional effectiveness, and make informed decisions about intervention, enrichment, and resource allocation.

For school leaders, instructional coaches, and Professional Learning Communities (PLCs), these performance levels can serve as a powerful operational tool. Rather than viewing state assessment results as an end-of-year report card, educators can use them as a starting point for targeted instructional planning and continuous improvement.

Understanding what each level represents is essential because every tier requires a different instructional response.

Below Basic: Addressing Foundational Learning Gaps

Students performing at the Below Basic level demonstrate significant gaps in their understanding of grade-level content. They often lack the prerequisite skills necessary to independently engage with current Pennsylvania Core Standards and may struggle to participate successfully in grade-level instruction.

Without targeted support, these foundational gaps can compound over time and create increasingly significant barriers to achievement.

Instructional Priorities

For students performing Below Basic, the focus should be on intensive intervention and foundational skill development. Effective strategies include:

  • Tier 3 intervention focused on prerequisite skills
  • Diagnostic assessments that identify specific learning gaps
  • Individualized learning pathways
  • Small-group or one-on-one instruction
  • Frequent progress monitoring
  • Immediate feedback cycles

The goal is not simply improving test scores. It is helping students build the academic foundation necessary to confidently engage with daily classroom instruction and begin making meaningful progress toward grade-level expectations.

Basic: The Greatest Opportunity for Growth

Students performing at the Basic level often represent the greatest opportunity for academic growth because they possess many of the foundational skills needed for success but still require targeted support to consistently demonstrate grade-level mastery.

These learners demonstrate partial understanding of grade-level concepts but frequently struggle to apply skills independently. They may understand key ideas during instruction but encounter difficulty when asked to complete complex tasks, solve multi-step problems, or transfer knowledge to unfamiliar situations.

Instructional Priorities

For students at the Basic level, schools should focus on Tier 2 supports that strengthen independence and close specific standards-based gaps. Effective approaches include:

  • Targeted small-group instruction
  • Standards-specific remediation
  • Scaffolded practice opportunities
  • Strategic formative assessments
  • Flexible intervention groups
  • Frequent review of progress-monitoring data

The objective is to help students move beyond reliance on teacher support and develop the confidence and independence needed to consistently demonstrate grade-level mastery.

Proficient: Maintaining and Extending Mastery

Students performing at the Proficient level demonstrate a solid understanding of grade-level skills and concepts. They can independently apply knowledge, analyze information, and complete tasks aligned to Pennsylvania standards.

For many schools, proficiency serves as the primary accountability target and contributes directly to measures within the Future Ready PA Index. However, achieving proficiency should not signal the end of instructional growth.

Instructional Priorities

Proficient students still benefit from rigorous instruction and ongoing monitoring. Schools should focus on:

  • High-quality Tier 1 instruction
  • Continued exposure to grade-level rigor
  • Standards-aligned extension activities
  • Regular formative assessments
  • Opportunities for deeper application and analysis

Without continued challenge, students can plateau. Maintaining engagement and ensuring sustained growth requires intentional planning even after proficiency has been achieved.

Advanced: Creating Opportunities for Academic Acceleration

Students performing at the Advanced level demonstrate an in-depth understanding of content and consistently apply higher-order thinking skills.

These learners often excel at complex problem solving, advanced text analysis, scientific reasoning, and evidence-based argumentation. They frequently require additional opportunities to explore content at greater levels of complexity than typical grade-level instruction provides.

Instructional Priorities

For Advanced students, the goal is sustained growth through enrichment and increased rigor. Strategies may include:

  • High Depth of Knowledge (DOK) learning experiences
  • Independent research opportunities
  • Project-based learning
  • Advanced writing and analysis tasks
  • Gifted programming pathways
  • Advanced Placement and dual-enrollment preparation

Providing meaningful challenge helps maintain engagement and supports long-term academic readiness.

From Test Scores to Classroom Action: A Simple Three-Step Process

Collecting assessment data is relatively easy. Turning that data into improved student outcomes is where the real work begins. One simple way to do this is through a structured data-review process during PLC meetings. A graphic-organizer or data analysis template is a great way to kickstart conversations and make real inferences about your assessment data.

Step 1: Spot the Big Trends

The first step is examining performance data from a schoolwide perspective. 

Rather than immediately focusing on individual students, leadership teams should identify patterns that appear across grade levels, classrooms, and subject areas. Questions to consider include:

  • Which grade levels are consistently meeting performance goals?
  • Which content areas show the largest gaps?
  • Are performance challenges isolated or widespread?
  • Are certain student groups experiencing similar difficulties across the system?

This broad view helps leaders determine whether challenges stem from individual classrooms, curriculum implementation, instructional practices, or systemic issues.

Step 2: Zoom In on Specific Skills

Once broader trends have been identified, teams can begin examining standards-level data.

A low mathematics score rarely means students struggle with every mathematical concept. More often, specific domains or standards are driving overall performance results. For example:

  • Students may demonstrate strong geometry skills but struggle with fractions.
  • Reading comprehension may be strong while vocabulary development lags behind.
  • Science performance may reveal weaknesses within a particular content strand.

By isolating high-leverage standards, schools can focus limited instructional time where it will have the greatest impact.

Step 3: Map Out the Strategy

The final step is where data becomes action.

Armed with standards-level insights, PLCs can collaborate to determine exactly how instruction will change. This may include:

  • Adjusting lesson pacing
  • Modifying upcoming units
  • Incorporating targeted bell-ringer activities
  • Creating intervention groups
  • Designing standards-specific remediation plans
  • Developing enrichment opportunities for advanced learners

The most effective PLCs move beyond identifying problems and focus on creating clear instructional responses.

To support these conversations, download our Pennsylvania PLC Data Analysis Template. The template helps teams identify trends, prioritize standards, document instructional responses, and plan next steps.

Building More Effective PLC Conversations

Many PLC meetings become data review sessions rather than problem-solving sessions. To maximize effectiveness, teams should structure conversations around three key questions:

1. What are students struggling to do?

Focus discussions on specific standards rather than broad performance categories.

2. Why are students struggling?

Examine instructional practices, curriculum alignment, assessment data, and intervention structures.

3. What will we do differently?

Identify concrete instructional adjustments, intervention plans, and timelines for progress monitoring.

This process transforms PLCs from reporting meetings into action-oriented planning sessions.

Why Progress Monitoring Matters More Than Annual Test Results

State assessments provide valuable information, but they are ultimately snapshots taken at a single point in time. 

By the time annual assessment results arrive, months may have passed since students encountered the content being measured. That is why ongoing progress monitoring remains essential.

Frequent formative assessments allow educators to:

  • Identify learning gaps earlier
  • Adjust instruction before misconceptions become entrenched
  • Monitor intervention effectiveness
  • Refine student groupings
  • Track movement between performance levels

Schools that consistently monitor student learning throughout the year are better positioned to make proactive instructional decisions rather than reactive ones.

Where Progress Learning Fits

Moving students from Below Basic to Basic, from Basic to Proficient, and from Proficient to Advanced requires more than annual testing. Schools need tools that help educators identify skill gaps, monitor growth, and deliver targeted instruction aligned to Pennsylvania Core Standards.

Progress Learning helps schools:

With more than 200,000 educator-authored items aligned to Pennsylvania standards, Progress Learning provides flexible tools for assessment, intervention, and progress monitoring. For students who need additional support, Liftoff adaptive intervention creates personalized learning paths based on identified skill gaps, including imported NWEA MAP data.

Progress Learning also carries an ESSA Tier 2 Moderate Evidence designation and has been evaluated by independent research organizations including Johns Hopkins University and McREL.

 

Moving Beyond Accountability to Achievement

Pennsylvania’s performance levels are not simply labels assigned after a test. They are instructional tools that help educators understand where students are today and determine the next steps needed for growth.

When schools combine performance-level data with focused PLC conversations, targeted intervention, rigorous instruction, and ongoing progress monitoring, assessment results become more than accountability measures. They become a roadmap for helping more students reach proficiency while creating opportunities for continued growth at every performance level.

To analyze your PSSA or Keystone results, use our PSSA/Keystone data analysis template to prepare for discussions.

Be sure to click “File” > “Make a copy” to customize it for your PLC.

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