It's been a big year for the Pittsburgh Public Schools -- the Pittsburgh Promise scholarship program raised $15 million, officials learned they're in line for a big grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the district met the federal achievement standard, "adequate yearly progress," or AYP, for the first time.

But Pennsylvania System of School Assessment scores released yesterday show how many challenges the district -- four years into its academic improvement campaign -- still face.

Overall, black students continue to trail white students and poor students continue to lag more affluent peers, often by significant margins. Some schools, including high schools, continue to post troubling scores.

The district made AYP on the scores of students in grades 3-5, but did so with statistical allowances that give districts credit for making progress toward academic goals while falling short of the goals themselves. Many other districts made AYP the same way.

"We know we have a lot of work left to do," Superintendent Mark Roosevelt said.

Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers President John Tarka agreed, saying, "We're going about that work in an energetic fashion."

PSSA reading and math tests are given to public-school students in grades 3-8 and 11. Based on their scores, students are classified as advanced, proficient, basic or below basic.

For a district to make AYP outright, at least 63 percent of students in one grade span -- 3-5, 6-8 or 11 -- had to score advanced or proficient in reading. At least 56 percent in one span had to score advanced or proficient in math. All student "subgroups" in the span, such as white, black and economically disadvantaged students, had to meet the targets, too.

In Pittsburgh, 56.5 percent of students in grades 3-5 scored advanced or proficient in reading. But the district received credit for making the reading goal because of the state's new "growth model" consideration.

"The growth model recognizes the efforts of schools whose students have not achieved proficiency but are on trajectories toward proficiency on future PSSA exams," the state says at paayp.emetric.net, its test data Web site.

In the district's 3-5 span, white, Asian and multi-racial students met the reading target outright.

While only 44.7 percent of black students and 49.5 percent of economically disadvantaged students in the span scored advanced or proficient in reading, the district was given credit for those subgroups because of the growth model.

In addition, while only 26.1 percent of special-education students and 26.9 percent of English-language learners in the span scored advanced or proficient in reading, the district received credit for those subgroups largely due to another statistical allowance called "safe harbor."

"To make safe harbor, a school or subgroup must reduce its percentage of students who performed below proficient in the previous year by at least 10 percent," the Web site says.

In math, 67.8 percent of students in grades 3-5 scored advanced or proficient -- way above the 56 percent target.

All subgroups met the target outright, too, except special-education students. But the district received credit for those students, in part, because of safe harbor.

In grades 6-8, the scores of special-education students were too low for the district to make AYP, even with the help of statistical allowances.

In 11th grade, the district missed AYP by a long shot, reflecting thorny problems at the district's high schools.

Only 50.1 percent of students, including 34.2 percent of black students and 38.9 percent of economically disadvantaged students, scored advanced or proficient in reading. Only 43.1 percent of students, including 27.2 percent of black students and 32.7 percent of disadvantaged students, scored advanced or proficient in math.

The district announced Aug. 10 that it made AYP, but the underlying data were made available only yesterday.

This was the first time the district made AYP since the term was created by the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. Pittsburgh is the biggest district in the state ever to make AYP.

The district made progress on most PSSA tests this year and saw a narrowing of the racial achievement gap on many tests, officials said. Across all tested grades and subgroups, the district made 86 of 98 AYP targets, many with the help of the statistical allowances.