A statewide rating system for individual school buildings shows that elementary schools in Butler County have been dragged down by a testing change made two years ago.

Some schools in all seven districts in the county got passing grades of at least 70 percent.

However, a change in the PSSA exams appears to have hit elementary schools particularly hard.

Those same districts also show elementary schools with failing scores between 65 percent and 70 percent.

These scores are tied to theSchool Performance Profile, or SPP, system, a rating of each school building in a district on a 100-point scale.

The scoresreflect data based on academic achievement, including how students performed on the PSSA or Keystone exams, academic growth from previous years and other factors such as attendance, promotion rates and graduation rates. The score also includes the percent of seniors who have taken or plan to take the PSAT.

Across the county, elementary school scores have been lower, and this is attributed to the fact that the PSSA exams changed two years ago to align with Pennsylvania Core standards. Since that change, elementary schools have scored lower in general on the exams.