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f ox c hapel a r ea s chool d is tr ict | s tat e of t he s chools
Student Achievement
The overall Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA) scores for Fox Chapel Area
School District students have risen incrementally over the past four years. The PSSA was
fi rst aligned with the Pennsylvania Common Core Standards in 2015. The same year, the
district began to use a comprehensive student-benchmarking and response-to-data process,
STAR Benchmarking, in kindergarten through grade 11 in math and English Language Arts
(ELA). Students are assessed several times a year to identify each student’s strengths and areas
that need improvement. The district uses Classroom Diagnostic Tools (CDT) benchmarking
assessments for science. Through these benchmarking processes, teachers have guided their
instruction to improve student achievement outcomes in ELA, math, and science.
In addition to student-benchmarking, the district has realigned the curriculum to better meet the
Pennsylvania Core Standards. Teachers have received extensive training in how to take the data
from the benchmark assessments to better address student learning needs.
Keystone Exams are end-of-course assessments administered in Algebra I, literature, and biology.
Fox Chapel Area students have also shown improvement in Keystone results each year as well.
The following pages are an overview of not just the 2018 student achievement results, but a
comparison since 2015.
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FOX CHAPEL AREA