With school districts across the state now in their fourth year of facing fewer state and federal resources, statewide results of the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment tests show declines in every grade level in nearly every subject tested.

The pattern of lower scores on the 2014 PSSA tests holds true for subgroups of students who are white, black, economically disadvantaged, English language learners or are in special education.

Overall on the assessments tests, there were these declines in the percentage of students scoring proficient and advanced in grades 3-8:

• Math fell from 79.9 percent in 2011 to 73.3 percent in 2014, a drop of 6.6 percentage points.

• Reading fell from 74.3 percent in 2011 to 69.3 percent in 2014, a drop of 5 percentage points.

The state Department of Education still has not publicly posted the report card showing statewide results for the assessment tests given in spring 2014 for math and reading in grades 3-8, science in grades 4 and 8 and writing in grades 5 and 8.

However, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette obtained data that the state prepared showing statewide grade-level results of the 2014 tests and the newer Keystone Exam results.

Of the grade-level scores, some of the changes were dramatic. In math, students in four groups — black, economically disadvantaged, English language learners and special education — experienced double-digit declines in grades 3, 4 and 5, and all of these groups except economically disadvantaged experienced a double-digit decline in grade 6. Across all grade levels, scores were down 13.2 percentage points for English language learners and special education, 12.5 for blacks, and 9.4 for economically disadvantaged.

In reading, special education students dropped 8.7 percentage points, blacks 8.6, English language learners 7.9 and economically disadvantaged 6.

On grade-level scores, exceptions to the decline included eighth-grade science for all students, white students, black students and economically disadvantaged students by 1 to 3.3 percentage points. A gain of less than a point was seen in eighth-grade writing for all students, white students and economically disadvantaged students.

Told of the lower scores, Ron Cowell, president of the Education Policy and Leadership Council, said that it is difficult to prove causation but noted school districts had about $850 million less when they opened their doors in fall 2011 than they did the previous school year.

While some money has been restored, particularly to pay for increased pension contributions, Mr. Cowell said that school districts still are operating with hundreds of millions of dollars less than in 2010-11 for classroom spending.

“In the poorest school districts where we often find the largest concentrations of students who are English language learners and who are in circumstances of economic disadvantage, those kinds of school districts disproportionately lost greater amounts of state money,” Mr. Cowell said.

The funding cuts began in 2011-12, the first year of Gov. Tom Corbett’s budget and the first year that federal economic stimulus money dried up. Education funding was a key issue in Mr. Corbett’s recent unsuccessful campaign for re-election.

In June, the Pennsylvania Association of School Administrators and the Pennsylvania Association of School Business Officials released their latest survey of school districts, saying that reduced levels of state and federal contributions to total school costs, rising pension costs and other increased costs have led to “unprecedented reductions in programs and school staff.”

In the survey, nearly 60 percent of districts responding had laid off staff since 2010-11, and 64 percent had increased class sizes. By this school year, they expected to have eliminated more than 1,000 programs.

Jim Buckheit, executive director of the Pennsylvania Association of School Administrators, attributed at least part of the score decline to decreased funding.

“Probably the students who needed the most assistance were probably most harmed by the lack of additional help, things like tutoring programs and after-school programming and some of the additional supports that were in place that had to be eliminated or decreased,” he said.

Another contributing factor might be the introduction of new state academic standards known as the Pennsylvania Core, which is the state version of the Common Core State Standards. Some schools have begun using the new standards although the PSSA won’t be aligned to the core until this school year. Some core-related questions were field tested on the assessments tests in 2012-13 and 2013-14.

The Keystone Exams, which are end-of-course exams given in Algebra 1, biology and literature in secondary schools, weren’t given statewide in 2011. The state used them in accountability measures for the first time in 2013.

Comparing the spring 2013 administration of the Keystones with the spring 2014 administration, the percentage proficient and advanced in Algebra 1 grew by 0.4 percentage point, from 39.7 to 40.1. The percentage for biology grew by 1.7 points, from 39.7 to 41.4. The percentage for literature fell by 2.5 points, from 54.9 to 52.4.

First Published: November 21, 2014, 5:00 a.m.