Governor Tom Wolf announced that the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA) will be condensed from to two weeks from three weeks. He also confirmed that the PSSA exams will take place during a three-week testing window, which will begin April 9, 2018. The later date will provide additional instruction time.

The new schedule supplements changes taking effect in 2017-18 that removes two sections of the PSSA, one in math and one in English language arts.  There is also a reduction in the number of questions in the science assessment. Removing the two sections of the assessment has reduced the amount of classroom time by an average of two days in most schools. This has allowed PDE to shorten the test window to two weeks and to provide school districts the flexibility to begin the assessment as late as April 25 in future years. Since school districts have already established their school calendar for 2017-18, the new testing window will begin with the 2018-19 school year.