DATA FILE DOCUMENTATION
PENNSYLVANIA SYSTEM OF SCHOOL ASSESSMENT –
SCHOOL AND DISTRICT REPORT CARDS

The Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) produces report cards for all schools and districts in the state. The 2001-02 school year is the seventh year for which these report cards were produced and the forth year that the full data file has been made available to researchers. What follows is a description of the available data file used to generate both the district- and school-level report cards. This data file contains all of the information presented on both the school and district report cards and will allow users to perform their own analyses.

The data for the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment are available in two formats: MS Access and MS Excel. The information is organized into subject area groups that manifest themselves as separate tables in the Access database and as separate files in Excel. The two formats contain identical data.

There are 9 district-level data groups and 12 school-level data groups for a total of 21 groups, as summarized below.

A full description of each variable contained in the district- and school- level files is available in PDF format here.

To the extent possible, the variable names are self-explanatory. Keep in mind that some data items are included in all tables. These variables were repeated in order to allow all tables to stand alone. All district tables include the district name, AUN number, district contact information, and the number of schools in the district. All school tables include the district name, AUN number, school name, school number, and school contact information.

In some cases, the numbers shown in the table(s) are replaced with an asterisk (*). This is an indication that the original number was from 1-9. These small numbers are suppressed in order to protect student privacy.

All of the information contained in these tables comes from one of several sources. Much of the information was provided by Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) from their data files. This information was combined with data collected by the contractor through a separate data collection to produce the final report cards. The data documentation that follows indicates the source of the data. Note that any information missing for a variable means the appropriate data or information was either not available or not applicable for the school, district or AVTS.

Finally, call (717) 705-8014 or write to the Division of Measures and Reports with questions or comments concerning the School and District Report Cards data file. The address is 333 Market Street (9th Floor), Harrisburg, PA 17126-0333.