The Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) is pleased to announce the release of PVAAS Student Projections to ACT, PSAT and SAT for students currently enrolled in your school(s)/LEA. These projections are useful to assess – and address – students’ postsecondary and career readiness, even before they take the ACT, PSAT or SAT or before they attend high school. They also provide a statewide perspective on postsecondary readiness that extends beyond performance on PSSA and Keystones or the local community. Furthermore, Pennsylvania’s School Performance Profile (SPP) includes data on student participation in the PSAT, as well as participation/performance on the ACT and SAT.

The new projections to ACT, PSAT and SAT may answer questions like…

• Are students who are already on the path to success on these assessments in fact participating in these assessments?
• Are there students with a high likelihood of success who do not consider themselves college candidates? Once identified, educators can support and encourage these students.
• Are there students who are at-risk for remediation in college?
• Are there students who are underprepared for the college readiness benchmarks? Once identified, educators can ascertain which courses, resources and supports may increase the students’ likelihood of success on the ACT/SAT and in their college readiness.

Access to the NEW PVAAS Student Projections to ACT, PSAT and SAT is available on the password-protected PVAAS website. PVAAS account holders with student level access will have access to these new projections for students currently enrolled in their respective school/LEA.

Existing statewide assessment data from PSSAs and Keystones are used to yield these additional PVAAS student projections for LEAs, which will include projections to various PSAT, ACT and SAT benchmarks that indicate readiness in a variety of courses and colleges. These projections are available for the following students:

• PVAAS Student Projections to PSAT for students currently enrolled in grades 6 to 11;
• PVAAS Student Projections to ACT for students currently enrolled in grades 9 to 12; and
• PVAAS Student Projections to SAT for students currently enrolled in grades 9 to 12.

SAS® EVAAS® is making available an archived web session for all LEAs interested in learning more about these new PVAAS Student Projections to Act, PSAT and SAT. This session will address the following topics:

• Overview of Methodology for PVAAS Student Projections to SAT, PSAT and ACT
• Benchmark Scores Used for PVAAS Student Projections to SAT, PSAT and ACT
• Students/Grade Levels Receiving PVAAS Student Projections to SAT, PSAT and ACT
• Offer Guidance on How to Use These New Projections
• Offer Guidance on How to Use Them to Help Students Plan for College

This web session will be available on the PVAAS website, https://pvaas.sas.com under the e-Learning Link no later than March 10, 2015.

Questions regarding the new PVAAS Student Projections to ACT, PSAT and SAT can be directed to pdepvaas@iu13.org.