State releases PARCC scores

The state released the high school PARCC results Thursday, and it shows that only 43 percent of APS students passed algebra 2 while half passed geometry.

Although, the Public Education Department released the results of the high school tests Friday, the results for all of the elementary and middle schools have yet to come in.

“Despite what these results may imply, the reality in our schools is that high-quality learning and teaching is occurring every day, and standardized tests like PARCC set our schools up for failure”, said Stephanie Ly, president of American Federation of Teachers New Mexico.

The only context is provided by PARCC (Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers) itself, which establishes “cut scores” to determine the dividing line between proficient and nonproficient performance – the pass/fail threshold.

It also said “roughly” 5,500 fewer students will have to retake the ELA exam this year than last year and 1,600 fewer will have to retake the math exam, though that is compared to the old exam. “We are doing what I would say is closing the honesty gap”, said Skandera.

PED said students who did not receive a score of 3 or higher will have to retake the exams sometime next month, though PED Secretary Hanna Skandera did not specify exactly when. “That gives me more confidence in the test”. We said…we’re going to raise our expectations.

For the graduating class of 2018, a score of four or five will be required to demonstrate competency in English language arts and one of the upper-level math tests-either Algebra II, Geometry or Integrated Math 2 or 3. “What we’ve seen in our state when we’ve raised our expectations in the past is in the first year, we did drop in our scores”.

Skandera said that, while at least 15 other options are available to satisfy graduation requirements – commonly called “alternative demonstrations of competency – the PARCC exam is the “first and primary way” to demonstrate competency”.

“Our students didn’t all of a sudden get worse”. “That’s why we’ve been asking the Secretary of Education to put a moratorium on all high stakes attached to these test scores”. There were lower scores in the ninth and 10th grades, but Skandera said it’s positive the percentages show improvement statewide as students move up grade levels. “Scores are lower but no valid comparison to SBA can be made”.

PED says 24.3 percent of 11th-grade students will have to retest in English and 51.4 percent will have to retest in mathematics.

“What I told all of our principals is I’m not concerned where we start; I’m concerned that we grow after we get started”, Balch said.

Santa Fe schools scored at or just below statewide averages in language arts, and well below the statewide averages in mathematics in two of three reported categories.

Results for grades 3-8 will be released October. 30.

“It is very important that our students and our staff know that this is not the end; it’s the beginning”, said Skandera.