PPS renews literacy push after only 44% of third graders score ‘proficient’ on state reading exams
Pittsburgh Public Schools is blaming “inconsistent implementation” for falling reading scores among the district’s third graders.
Just 44% of third graders were proficient in reading at the end of the 2024-2025 school year, down from 46% the year prior.
During a presentation of the district’s Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA) results Tuesday night, superintendent Wayne Walters told board members that teachers need more time for dedicated training on reading instruction.
“It has to be across the board because there’s not a content area where reading is not a necessity,” Walters said. “There’s not a content area where comprehension is not a necessity.”
Reading scores have continued to fall since the 2022-2023 school year. Schools closely monitor third-grade test results, in particular, because research shows students who aren’t reading proficiently by the third grade are more likely to remain behind.
Statewide, 48.6% of third graders were considered proficient or advanced in reading. Just over a third of PPS schools met or exceeded that benchmark, while nearly two-thirds of schools did not.
Last year, PPS said it would revamp its approach to reading by placing literacy coaches in district elementary schools, identifying and sharing best practices across buildings, and differentiating student instruction to address ongoing inequities.
But Walters said the district doesn’t have a coach for each school, meaning some must split their time between multiple buildings. Reading coaches, in turn, struggled to provide the level of demonstration and co-teaching required to transform instruction, district leaders said.
Assistant superintendent Shawn McNeil added that the extent to which schools implemented those strategies varied. McNeil said some principals weren’t giving sufficient time to classroom observations, and teacher planning time was stretched thin.
He also said educators weren’t reviewing data often enough or in a structured way. “Because of this, it was harder to make quick adjustments to instruction,” McNeil continued.
PPS leaders said they will turn their attention to ensuring practices districtwide align with the science of reading — the body of research that emphasizes systemic phonics instruction.
In January, the district plans to launch a training course in the science of reading that all K-3 teachers and principals must complete. It will also publish a science of reading playbook with “tools designed to support both teachers and principals with immediate practical guidance,” McNeil said.
Leaders also said they will work to make curricula more aligned with state assessment expectations. According to the commonwealth budget signed last month, all Pennsylvania schools must adopt an evidence-based reading curriculum by 2027.
Schools will be required to report their choice, as well as the number of teachers who have completed training to instruct it, to the state. They must also begin screening students in kindergarten through third grade at least three times a year to assess their reading proficiency and provide supplemental instruction for all students who are below grade level.
Only a third of Pennsylvania fourth graders last year were proficient in reading by national standards, according to the most recent National Assessment of Education Progress.
“There’s a national challenge, there is a state challenge, and we have a local challenge,” Walters said.
The district commissioned a report from the Reading League to evaluate its Open Court Reading curriculum, adopted in 2023. The results of the report were not discussed at Tuesday’s meeting.
New board member Tawana Cook Purnell suggested the district “departmentalize” its elementary school teaching staff by having the best reading teachers focus their efforts solely on the subject.
She succeeds retiring board member Sylvia Wilson, who served on the board for 12 years after teaching in the district for decades. Purnell was sworn onto the board last week alongside two other new board members: Eva Diodati and Erikka Grayson.
Diodati holds the seat vacated by former director Jamie Piotrowski, while Grayson took the seat left by longtime Hill District representative Sala Udin.
“We have to make reading a priority, teach reading across the curriculum, look at best practices and devote more time to reading during the school day,” Purnell, a retired school administrator, told her colleagues.
School board president Gene Walker said a clear vision and strategy ahead will be especially necessary once leaders return to discussing the district’s facilities and reconfiguration plans.
The board voted down a proposal to close nine school buildings and implement other sweeping changes last month.
“We need to flood our students in schools that are disproportionately failing with so much resource that they don’t have any choice but to succeed,” Walker said.
