Pine-Richland School District

PSSA/Keystone Spring Testing

Students in Grades 3-8 will be taking the Pennsylvania System of State Assessment (PSSA) exams in April/May 2023. Additionally, any student currently enrolled in and finishing a Keystone course (Algebra I, Literature, or Biology) in grades 7-12 will be assessed on the Keystone Exams in mid-May. These are the Pennsylvania assessments to help benchmark students' learning against the state standards, which provides us with one additional measure to indicate their overall performance through both achievement and growth. 

The dates of testing are summarized in the table below for your convenience. During these dates, we ask that you make efforts to allow your child to be in school the full day to keep disruptions to their testing at a minimum. Vacation requests during this period are not permitted to be excused, as participation is a requirement of the state for students in eligible grades. 

This year, the majority of students will be tested online via a district-provided Chromebook on premises, unless an accommodation is in place that would require paper/pencil assessments. This does not apply to students in grade three at the primary buildings as they will continue to take paper and pencil tests.  Students in grades 4-8 will need a pair of wired headphones/earbuds, which can plug into the device (e.g. not bluetooth) to assist with the directions and prompting for the assessment. Test these headphones in advance on your child’s district-issued device if you have one. Thereafter, please ensure that your child has a pair of wired headphones/earbuds in their backpack and is ready to go in advance of the assessment. Teachers of our younger students will be checking on these prior to testing as preparations are fully made to support the online assessment process. Families in need of financial assistance or additional guidance should contact their child’s school.

Please assist us by ensuring that your child’s device is fully charged and that they also bring their charging cord each day as well. Please note that all state testing is conducted at the school site and cannot be accessed from home. As a function of the testing platform’s security features, testing may only be conducted on the school district’s network. Students taking part in virtual learning will be contacted by their school administrators directly to share test location, date, and time information. 

Resources for students and parents are included here as well, such as the (a) test taker code of conduct, (b) the calculator policy, no electronic device policy, and (c) a parent letter and FAQ provided by the state. 

We appreciate your assistance in making these preparations and to give students the most confidence possible entering into these assessments, for which they should feel very prepared and ready to share their knowledge.