What’s One Less PSSA?

Last Spring marked the Pennsylvania System of State Assessment (PSSA)’s first cancelation since its introduction in 1992. This provoked a range of mixed feelings among students, teachers, and administration.

PSSA scores, specifically scores from third and seventh graders, have been considered during admission into Masterman middle and high school for years. Ms. Elana Solomon, who, as a middle school dean, worked on admissions with previous principal Marjorie Neff, explained, “For all special admission schools, anyone with an 88 percentile and above qualified for admission and ethen we dwindled it down from there.” With one year of missing test scores, schools had to resort to other means of assessment. The new Masterman admissions team (which Ms Elana is not on) decided to consider sixth grade PSSA scores for the 2020-2021 high school admissions cycle.

At first, many current eighth graders were relieved when Governor Tom Wolf declared that PSSAs would be canceled. “They always cause me tons of stress,” wrote Marisa Maisano (8-3), “I was glad to get rid of one stressful thing during this already stressful time.” Yet beneath that sense of security lied hints of uncertainty. “I was kind of relieved, but worried about high school applications,” Sopbhie Jermann (8-6) detailed. Maisano explained, “I was upset that they were looking at things that we did from when we were 10-11 years old, since we have changed academically [since then].” Other eighth graders concurred. Rory Gonzales (8-4) wrote, “my friends and I discussed how it was unfair to use our 6th grade PSSAs. We were never warned to take it very seriously, and we looked at it more as a practice for our 7th grade one.”

This sudden switch benefited some and disadvantaged others. Gabrielle Ketchum (8-4) wrote, “It definitely made other PSSAs that we took more important and therefore affected heavily which high schools accepted you.” Valeria Schuster (8-6) explained, “It did make me nervous because I did not get the score I was hoping for in [6th grade], but I was able to get into the places I wanted to go.”

With changes to test scores coupled with Masterman’s movement towards a more diverse student body, “interviews and zip codes were put into the mix,” explained Ms. Elana. During Masterman’s 2020-21 highschool admissions cycle, students from outside the Masterman middle school were admitted. “To my knowledge, taking students into the 9th grade from outside of the school has not happened in quite some time,” explained Ms. Elana.

Opinions about the test scores themselves also vary among the staff. “I do not like these state mandated tests. I don’t like teachers teaching to the test. It is an utter waste of time and it is not indicative of where the child is at in terms of the learning process,” Ms. Elana stated. That sentiment is echoed by many students: “The PSSAs… make you judge your self worth based on a number you get, and comparing that number to other people,” Maisano wrote.

Nevertheless, teachers agreed that the government’s decision to cancel the PSSAs last year was a good one. Some were “glad to see it go.” One seventh grade teacher from the school district of Cheltenham, Mrs. Desa Lee, explained, “[the] PSSA usually has a negative connotation among the students because it's a time of stress… It was a good decision on the part of the state because given the whole reality of Covid, it just made sense not to administer the test.” Overall, most Masterman eighth graders and teachers were relieved; they agreed that the cancelation of PSSAs was a good choice.

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Up until mid-February 2021, Pennsylvania school districts were faced with the question regarding PSSA testing.

As the end of the school year nears, the Phila School District is still completely virtual for students in grades 3-12. With PSSA season just around the corner, the