The education group A+ Schools yesterday released data showing most Pittsburgh Public Schools students in grades four through eight made at least one full school year's worth of academic progress in 2007-08.

The data also cast light on which schools are doing a better job than others at helping students get ahead.

A+ Schools included the data on academic growth -- billed as more informative in some ways than the annual state math and reading scores -- in its fourth annual guide to the school district and city charter schools.

The guide yesterday was mailed to 20,000 households with school district students or children 5 and under.

On Sunday, the guide will be included in copies of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette delivered to city addresses and sold at city locations. It also is available at www.aplusschools.org and at selected libraries and government offices.

Math and reading results from the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment, regularly included in the A+ Schools guide, report student proficiency in grades 11 and three through eight.

But PSSA scores don't measure how much ground, if any, students gained during the school year or offer clues about which schools have demonstrated success at pushing students forward.

In addition to PSSA scores, the new A+ Schools guide includes data from the Pennsylvania Value-Added Assessment System, or PVAAS, intended to show how effective district schools were in helping children grow academically during 2007-08.

Carey Harris, executive director of A+ Schools, said the information is a "powerful and robust tool" for monitoring school performance.

A school year's worth of progress refers to whether a group of students -- the fifth grade at an elementary school, for example -- met or exceeded PVAAS's estimates of academic growth. The estimates are based on students' lifetime PSSA scores.

The guide does not include PVAAS data for district high schools or city charter schools.

District schools moved students ahead at least one school year in math and reading in grades four, five, seven and eight. Schools also moved sixth-graders ahead at least one year in math but fell short in reading, according to the guide.

Eight elementary schools and one middle school helped students make at least one school year's worth of growth in all grades evaluated by PVAASSome critics of the federal No Child Left Behind Act, the law that requires schools, districts and states to strive for 100 percent proficiency in math and reading, say more attention should be paid to yearly growth rates. They contend that schools should receive credit for moving students ahead, even if the students remain far from proficiency.

In Pittsburgh, academic growth rates came into play in Superintendent Mark Roosevelt's 2006 round of school closings. Rand Corp. evaluated schools' effectiveness in promoting student achievement, and Mr. Roosevelt closed some of those with the lowest ratings.