PARCC Scores: Like Peers Nationwide, Colorado Students Struggle With New Tests

The MA Board of Elementary and Secondary Education is scheduled to vote November 17 on whether to adopt PARCC, the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers.

The release follows the department’s October release of data on high school students’ PARCC scores, results that the department re-released after acknowledging that it had incorrectly described what the scores indicated.

“The world has changed a lot since then”, said Jeff Wulfson, deputy commissioner of the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, who said MCAS set the foundation for a “high level” of academic performance. The scores below reflect statewide results for grades 3 through 8.

Material developed by the PARCC consortium will likely make up a “substantial component” of a hybrid student assessment exam that could be launched in 2017, Education Commissioner Mitchell Chester said Thursday.

“The issues of technology, Common Core alignment, the issues of correlation of the test results, the more predictable nature of moving to this type of a test, [MCAS] 2.0 could address that”, Scott said.

In Framingham, 8 percent of the students who took the math exam did not meet expectations (level 1 status), compared to 6 percent of the state, in the math exam.

Initial, state-level results show Greeley-Evans School District 6 may be hit hardest by the new tests.

“The approach I have recommended lets us continue to benefit from the high-quality, next generation PARCC assessment in which we’ve invested a great deal of time and effort”, Chester said in a news release.

“We knew when we were setting these higher statewide standards that the first couple years there would be a few sticker shock”, he said in an interview Thursday at the Capitol.

Why did so many students – especially at the high school level – refuse to take these tests? PARCC supporters argue that test is a stronger measure of academic readiness.

Grade 10 students continued to take the MCAS exam, as it is a requirement for graduation in MA.

Terry Holliday, former Kentucky Education Commissioner and former President of the Council of Chief State School Officers, added that the announcement was “an important step forward” in ensuring continued comparability across states. Together we have developed a world-class product that has been administered to 5 million students across 11 states plus the District of Columbia.

Individual student reports will be sent to districts in December for them to distribute to parents. “After meeting with local parents in my district, and discussing the potential repercussions of aid losses based upon participation in PARCC, we decided there was a need to protect the state’s children”, said Senator Gill. Bill H.340 asks for a three-year delay regarding PARCC.

“I don’t think there is anything PARCC can do to [earn] my trust because I don’t believe in high-stakes test”, said Cheri Kiesecker, a Fort Collins mother who has pushed for more data privacy legislation and testing reform at the Capitol.

The Department of Education Director of Assessment Hope Allen filled in the State Board on just how well students did on the PARCC test.

Currently, as the implementation of the PARCC is still developing and in question, the test is slated to begin in third grade and continue each year through the high school level. PARCC results would not affect schools’ accountability ratings until 2017.

State education officials appear to have more faith in the tests.

Progress and Performance Index scores (PPI), however, will be calculated this year for the sake of continuity and for accountability determinations in future years, according to the state.

“To this day, no one can tell me whether or not we’re smarter because of standardized testing”, Levine said.

Certain districts are simply unable, in their current condition, to supply the student body with enough computers to take PARCC in the way it is intended and the districts will be responsible for funding the PARCC computer requirements without much state assistance.