Less than half of Maryland elementary and middle school students can
pass the tough new standardized tests, a result school officials
attribute to an overhaul of teaching and testing standards in the past
several years. Maryland raised the standards for what public school
students are expected to learn two years ago and the results show that
teachers and students have not yet adjusted to the higher expectations
of the new Partnership for Assessments of Career and College Readiness
or PARCC.
On
the reading test, nearly 40 percent of Maryland students in grades
three through eight failed to meet the standard set by educators from
Maryland and about 10 other states. Only 30 percent met the standard in
math. That standard could be adjusted by the Maryland State school board
if they believe it is too high.
"We have set the bar high, and this data reflects that," said
Interim State Schools Superintendent Jack Smith, in a statement. "These
results should be viewed in combination with other measures when
assessing student progress."
The results were not as good as those
in Massachusetts and New Jersey, but slightly better than those in
Illinois, Louisiana and Rhode Island. Not all of the states that give
the test have released all of their data yet...
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/education/bs-md-parcc-scores-20151208-story.html
This goes hand in hand with the gradual elimination of SAT and ACT requirements.
ReplyDeleteBetter than Louisiana? Was that before or after Katrina destroyed a lot of the schools in New Orleans? Got to be proud of edging out Louisiana and the folks living in the underserved areas there.
ReplyDeleteAll BOE members need to turn in their resignations NOW.
ReplyDeletePARCC is aligned with standards (Common Core) that are pushing higher-level academic expectations into earlier and earlier grades. Expecting a high pass rate on PARCC is like expecting all elementary-schoolers to be able to run a 4-minute mile: not gonna happen. The biggest surprise is that THIS many kids DID "run a 4-minute mile!"
ReplyDeleteAre you forgetting that MCPS opted out of all that and went with their more rigorous own Pearson Forward curriculum?
DeleteNot at all - but PARCC is still aligned with Common Core, and Curriculum2.0 is as well (minor enough differences as to essentially be Common Core by another name; Maryland is still a Common Core state.). Nothing in Common Core was allowed to be removed; only up to 15%, I believe, was permitted to be added.
DeleteWhat???? Pearson Forward was written by MCPS administrators.
DeleteYes, but it still had to be CCSS-compliant, since MD is (for now, anyway) a Common Core state, as well as part of the PARCC Consortium. So the creators of C2.0/Pearson Forward still had to use the Common Core standards when the curriculum was created.
DeleteIf anything resembling what we know about how children learn, especially in K-3, had been applied to the creation of the *actual* Common Core State Standards, that would be another thing...so we have a test aligned to standards that do NOT match they way kids learn in the foundational years, or a test that tests what kids best learn at least through most of elementary school. It's like seeing that children are having a hard time jumping over a 4-foot bar, so to Close The Gap (presumably LOL), we raised the bar to 6 feet. :P
In any case, my original point was that these PARCC results do NOT tell us if the kids are learning at grade level, they do NOT tell us if the teachers are effective (well, I guess we could use the results to say they tell us that teachers are less than effective at teaching standards that are 1-3 levels above grade in much of elementary school). I take these results with a grain of salt, and my kids won't be taking PARCC this year either. (FWIW, a number of MCPS families, many with multiple kids, refused PARCC this past year and would have been scored as Zeroes - probably not enough to make a dent in the overall scores, but be aware that it's happening, and will likely happen MORE this spring.)
Well that is hysterical - "had to be" compliant? You are joking, right? No one outside of Pearson and MCPS has seen the curriculum, no one has reviewed or approved the curriculum. It's proprietary to Pearson. MCPS and Pearson did whatever they wanted with the curriculum and there was no review of it.
DeleteNeither was there any testing of Common Core before it went online nationwide. :-(
DeleteI take your point about it not being seen outside MCPS or Pearson, though.
Why does it have to been "Pass/Fail?" Why can't it be like the HSA and be "proficient" and "advanced?"
ReplyDelete