The Pennsylvania Department of Education released the results of the 2005-06 Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA) tests. The PSSA tests are a series of standarized tests administered by the PA Department of Education to evaluate school performance. All Pennsylvania public schools are required to participate. Participation in the PSSA testing by private schools is voluntary.

Analyzing the Results

Analysis of the data reveals the core strength of LVCHS academics. Of the 22 public and private high schools in Lehigh and Northampton counties, LVCHS ranked in a tie for 2nd in the overall percentage of students achieving 'Advanced' or 'Proficient' in reading, and 3rd in the overall percentage of students achieving 'Advanced' or 'Proficient' in mathematics.

In mathematics, 69.1% of LVCHS 11th graders achieved 'Advanced' or 'Proficient', and 82.9% in reading. Overall, 52.0% of Pennsylvania 11th graders achieved these ratings in mathematics and 65.1% in reading.

Assessing the Impact of Sub-groups

One reason often cited to explain the performance of public versus private schools is the diversity of the student population the public school must serve. The PSSA data includes information on the test results of various sub-groups, such as students with an IEP (Individualized Education Plan), students with limited English skills, and economically disadvantaged students.

While a wide range of factors influence student performance, disaggregating the results by subgroups from the public school data gives evidence of the core academic strength of LVCHS. For example, removing the IEP sub-group results from the public school data, LVCHS continues to rank high, placing 4th in reading and 7th in mathematics out of the 22 high schools in the two-county area. Similar disaggregation of the limited English sub-group results in LVCHS ranking 3rd in reading and 3rd in mathematics. Subtracting the economically disadvantaged sub-group data from the public school data yields a 3rd place ranking for LVCHS in both reading and mathematics. Disaggregating mulitple sub-groups from the data is not feasible since students may be classified in more than one group.

Click on the link below to visit the PA Department of Education website for the complete set of 2005-06 PSSA test results.

2005-06 PA DOE PSSA Test Results (scroll down to the school-level results)