Tabernacle Township School District recently received its results for the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers and the New Jersey Assessment of Skills and Knowledge tests, and they were presented at the Board of Education meeting last week. The scores saw a mix of improvement and regression in PARCC, however there was a marked improvement in number of students participating in the test. NJASK saw most students in the advanced proficient and proficient categories.
“There were some gains and there were some losses, and for a second year administration of a brand new assessment I don’t think that is a far reach from where it should be,” Director of Curriculum and Instruction Christine Skinner said.
This year marks the second administration of the PARCC test and the first opportunity to compare year-to-year results.
The PARCC assessment uses five performance levels that delineate the knowledge, skills and practices students are able to demonstrate in math and English language arts: 1, did not meet expectations; 2, partially met expectations; 3, approaching expectations; 4, met expectations; and 5, exceeded expectations. District scores were broken down by grade level and number of students who received advanced, proficient or not passing scores. Levels 1 through 3 are not passing, level 4 is proficient and level 5 is advanced.
“We want to see less students in levels 1 and 2 and more students in levels 4 and 5,” Skinner said.
For ELA, third, fourth, sixth and seventh grades saw increases in the percent of students who received a 4 or 5, while in fifth and eighth grade there was little change or regression compared to last year.
For math, grades four through eight saw increases in the percent of students who received a 4 or 5 for this year. Third grade saw little change, with 40 percent of students at level 4 and 7.1 percent at level 5. Algebra saw a great increase this year, with 90 percent receiving a 4 and 3.3 percent receiving a 5, with a decrease in level 3 to 6.7 percent and no levels 1 or 2.
Compared to the state, for the PARCC grade level outcomes of receiving level 4 or higher, the district was less than the state for the most part except in mathematics in fourth grade and in algebra.
“All of the data identified each standard and how many students met or exceeded that standard. We can really dive in deep and look at where the students performed well and where they might need more instruction with that standard,” Skinner said. “… and we can look at how our curriculum (can
change) to meet the new standards.”
For the NJASK, fourth- and eighth-grade students were required to take the science test. The NJASK uses advance proficient, proficient and partially proficient as student performance levels.
In Tabernacle, there were 33 students who received advanced proficient, 24 who received proficient and one who received partially proficient from fourth grade. For eighth grade, 26 students received advanced proficient, 50 received proficient
and 15 received partially proficient.
“These are very good numbers,” Skinner said. “The state is looking into rewriting this assessment.”
In other news:
• The Tabernacle BOE was re-certified by the New Jersey School Boards Association as a master board. To be a master board, the board must participate in 12 hours or credits in addition to the 10 required for normal certification as well as a number of governmental forms and duties. The Tabernacle BOE was one of four in the county and 11 in the state to be recertified or receive certification.
• Tabernacle BOE approved the full-time positions of confidential secretary in the business office and facilities/transportation manager to be abolished and created the part-time position of confidential secretary in the business office and the full-time positions of facilities manager and transportation manager. Keith Higginbotham was approved as facilities manager, Deborah Herndon was approved as transportation manager, and Nancy Rodgers was approved as part-time confidential secretary.
