Pennsylvania’s standardized assessments are intended to gauge yearly progress among students and teachers. But how valuable are they in a year when students missed class time due to the pandemic?

Results from the 2021 Keystone and PSSA exams were released last month.

Compared to pre-pandemic years, scores were lower and more students opted out of taking the tests at all.

The statewide average for students testing proficient or advanced was 55 percent in English/language arts and 37.3 in math. In 2019, the statewide average for English was 62.4 percent and for math, 45.4.

Local schools were below the statewide average more often than not.

Only four of the 28 schools in the Times News area scored above the statewide average for English/language arts. Tamaqua Senior High School, Tamaqua Elementary, West Penn Elementary and Towamensing Elementary scored higher than 55 percent.

Ten of 28 local schools scored higher than the state average in math - Pleasant Valley High School and Elementary, Lehighton High School and Elementary, Tamaqua Senior High School, Northern Lehigh High School, Palmerton High School, Jim Thorpe High School, CCTI and Towamensing Elementary.

Statewide participation was 71 percent, down from 97 percent in 2019. Six local schools - CCTI, Jim Thorpe, Lehighton, Palmerton, Weatherly and Northern Lehigh high schools did not receive scores for English because participation was so low.

Debate over the value of the test scores began as soon as they were released.

The Pennsylvania Department of Education said it would not use the scores for school accountability or teacher evaluations.

“The results should not be viewed as a complete, representative sample of all students in the commonwealth, nor should a single assessment during an atypical school year be considered a true metric of student performance,” said Sherri Smith, deputy secretary for elementary and secondary education.

House Speaker Bryan Cutler, R-Lancaster, said the scores are evidence that students have suffered from disruptions in education.

“Pennsylvania students at all levels are struggling to recover from the many disruptions to their education and the proof is in the scores finally released today,” he said when scores were released.

Area school superintendents said that losing three months at the end of the 2019-20 school year put students behind even before the 2020-21 school year began.

“Obviously you’re not going to catch up on 15 months of education in 12 months,” said David McAndrew Jr., Panther Valley Superintendent.

During the 2020-21 school year, schools were forced to change how they taught students due to pandemic restrictions. Students also lost class time due to quarantines.

“It’s nearly impossible to say we can determine the effectiveness of the curriculum when we administer the curriculum in a completely different manner,” Rushefski said.

Tim Tkach, a longtime administrator who consults Lehighton School District on curriculum, grants and federal programs, put it more bluntly - “You’re building a plane as you’re flying it.”

More students than ever chose not to take the tests at all. Many were students who took online classes, but other families felt that students’ mental health was more important than test scores.

“As much as I want to see math and English numbers going up, I want to make sure our kids are functioning well, are healthy and moving forward in that fashion,” said Ray Kinder Jr., Tamaqua Area School District Superintendent.

Even in pre-pandemic years there were different opinions on the value of standardized scores.

It is the one time that districts can compare themselves to others around the state.

Schools can also get deeper insights than the percent of students who score “above basic” or below basic. That information helps them adjust instruction to improve overall test scores.

“We’ll use them as an instructional tool for our teachers in preparing lessons and curriculum,” Kinder said.

But some argue that factors like poverty and trauma can have as much impact on a student’s test score as their teacher does. And there are cases when good students do bad on standardized tests. Tkach added that more incentives for students to perform well on the test - like scholarships for good performance - could get students more motivated for the test.

“It gives them something to aim and shoot for,” Tkach said.

Right now, schools are getting ready to take PSSA tests for the 2021-22 school year. Administrators say it looks like there will be fewer opt-outs than last year but learning loss during the pandemic will continue to have effects. Federal stimulus funds aimed at addressing pandemic learning loss can be used for 3-4 years, showing that the federal government recognizes that it will take a while for districts to catch up.

While it could be years before they can directly compare test scores to the ones from before the pandemic, schools now have a new benchmark to start with as they gauge progress.

“This represents a new beginning and we’re going to build on the scores we have going forward,” Rushefski said.