Months after students last school year took the new Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers standardized test, the Eastern Camden County Regional School District was able to release the district’s scores at its Dec. 16 Board of Education meeting.
Last year, PARCC replaced the former standardized High School Proficiency Assessment exam for those in grade 11, and the PARCC was also administered to those in grades nine and 10 as well.
PARCC, which is an entirely computer-based exam, tested students in English language arts literacy and mathematics.
District director of curriculum, instruction and professional development Robert Cloutier presented the scores to the board along with some additional information and notes from the state.
Cloutier said the state was pleased that students at lower grades levels — grades three through eight also took the exam — were doing well, as the PARCC standards were new and the test was their initial exposure to them.
However, he conversely noted the state recognized since ninth-, 10th- and 11th-grade students have not have had exposure to the standards their entire educational career, the state acknowledged it would take more time for secondary educational scores to increase.
Scores on the PARCC exam fell on one of five scoring levels, and Cloutier explained anything in levels four and five on PARCC is equivalent to the old standards of proficiency for the HSPA.
Cloutier compared Eastern’s English language arts literacy scores to those achieved at the state level. For the English language arts literacy exam, Cloutier said 40 percent of Eastern’s ninth-grade students scored equal to level four or greater, which was equal to the state.
For Eastern’s 10th-grade students, Cloutier said 38 percent scored equal to level four or greater, which was almost equal to the 37 percent score from the state. For Eastern’s 11th-grade students, Cloutier said 15 percent scored equal to level four or greater, which was below the 24 percent score from the state.
Cloutier noted that as the district knew from last year, the majority of Eastern’s students chose not to participate in the PARCC exams. According to Cloutier, more than 50 percent of Eastern’s freshmen participated, less than 50 percent of sophomores participated and only 121 out 514 juniors who could have taken the test did so.
“Just around 20 percent of our juniors participated, but honestly, watching our students taking the test, they might have been in the room, but I don’t how many of them committed to doing their absolute best since they were in a room for six days taking the test for the first time,” Cloutier said.
Cloutier also compared Eastern’s mathematics scores to those achieved at the state level.
At the high school levels, students were tested in either algebra 1, geometry or algebra 2. For the algebra 1 exam, Cloutier said 23 percent of Eastern’s ninth-grade students scored equal to level four or greater, which was less that the state’s percentage at 36 percent. For Eastern’s geometry students, Cloutier said 35 percent scored equal to level four or greater, which was above the 22 percent score from the state. For Eastern’s algebra 2 students, Cloutier said 41 percent scored equal to level four or greater, which was also above the 24 percent score from the state.
“Once again, however, you see that we’re just barely above 50 percent participation in algebra 1, only again around 50 percent in geometry and then far below 50 percent at algebra 2,” Cloutier said.
Regarding participation rates, Cloutier said the state has passed regulations stating districts cannot be punished financially for high numbers of students choosing to not take the PARCC.
Cloutier said the federal government also recently followed suit when it passed the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, which used to be known as No Child Left Behind and is now called the Every Student Succeeds Act.
Cloutier said the act states the federal government won’t punish schools for test participation rates and believes that high school level students should only take one test, not three years of tests as with PARCC, meaning the federal government does not support that aspect of what is being done in New Jersey.
Cloutier also said the schedule where assessments other than PARCC, such as the SAT or ACT exams, can be used as a high school graduation requirement has also been extended.
“That alternative assessment schedule has been extended all the way through the class of 2019, so the very first year where PARCC, if it remains, becomes a mandatory graduation requirement at this point is 2020,” Cloutier said.
