Evesham BOE discusses PARCC, police in schools
Months after students last school year took the new Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers standardized test, the Evesham Township School District was able to release the district’s scores at its Dec. 17 Board of Education meeting.
Last school year, PARCC replaced the state’s formerly administered New Jersey Assessment of Skills and Knowledge test for students in grades three through eight.
Through the test, which was entirely computer based, students were tested in English language arts literacy as well as mathematics.
Students’ PARCC scores could fall on any one of five PARCC scoring levels, with scores of either level four or level five being equivalent to the former proficiency scores of the NJASK.
However, according to Evesham Superintendent John Scavelli Jr., as this was the first year of the test, New Jersey officials said it was believed a majority of students in the state would score on either level three or level four.
“If there’s a ‘passing point,’ if you will, it would be level four and above,” Scavelli said. “The state did anticipate, though, that most children should be within the level three or level four range.”
For the English language arts literacy scores of grades three through eight, Scavelli said Evesham did follow the pattern as outlined by the state, with the majority of its students falling within levels of three or four.
However, Scavelli also noted that with the scores for grades three through eight in English language arts literacy, in all grades Evesham had a higher percentage than the state average of student scores on those “passing point” levels of level four and level five.
“We did exceed in every grade level the state percentages,” Scavelli said.
For the mathematics scores of grades three through eight, Scavelli said Evesham again followed the pattern as predicted by the state, with the majority of Evesham students’ scores falling within the level three or four range.
In all grades except fifth-grade math, Evesham again had a higher percentage than the state average of students scores on those “passing point” levels.
“Again, most of our students fell within that level three to four range, and overall we did exceed the state in every area except grade five, so that is an area where we will pay particular focus in the upcoming year, but in every other area we did exceed,” Scavelli said.
As was stated by district officials at previous meetings, the test results. PARCC is a more rigorous test than the HSPA and is more closely aligned with the SATs and other college entrance exams.”
Birnbohm said Common Core and PARCC’s increased difficulty is not different from changes the state has made in standardized testing in the past.
“We have a history of increasing rigor in our standards,” she said.
Birnbohm described PARCC as an opportunity for students to perfect their skills. She noted other tests such as the SAT are being aligned to Common Core State Standards in 2016 and will feature questions similar to PARCC.
“This is another chance for them to practice and show their proficiency,” Birnbohm said.
LRHSD is now actively engaged in reviewing and analyzing the first year PARCC data and preparing for the 2016 and future PARCC assessments, with an emphasis on student success.
“Our data team is working with the administrative teams in each of the schools to ensure they understand and communicate about PARCC in general and put the results in context,” Birnbohm said. “Teachers will be able to utilize our new common planning time, built into the new four day rotating schedule, to analyze PARCC data, our curriculum and our pacing guides.
“We understand this is a new assessment and there will be growth over time, but most importantly, we understand the PARCC is only one measure of a student’s success. We rely on many indicators (teacher input, class grades, PSAT, AP, etc.) to help shape a student’s program in order to support all of our students in reaching their goal of either two graduations (high school and then college) or a career.”
