IN OUR SCHOOLS

PARCC results: Most kids flunk math, English

Amanda Oglesby
@OglesbyAPP
New Jersey Department of Education officials announced results for the first PARCC test administered in New Jersey.

WEST TRENTON – New Jersey parents should brace themselves for bad news this November.

Students who took the new Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, or PARCC, are likely to be shocked when they receive their test results in a few weeks.

Less than half of students in grades 3 to 11 who took New Jersey’s newest standardized test are meeting their grade-level expectations, according to figures released Tuesday by the state Department of Education.

EDITORIAL: Another test looms for PARCC

For example, only 36 percent of 10th-graders met or exceeded their English and language arts expectations on the PARCC test this year. Only 24 percent of the students who took the eighth-grade math test and high school geometry test met or exceeded expectations.

Across the state, only 34 percent of students met or exceeded their math expectations, and only 46 percent met or exceeded their English and language arts goals.

In some cases, the numbers are a 20 percentage point drop from the 2014 scores recorded in one of New Jersey's previous standardized tests, the NJ ASK. Math scores for fourth-graders dropped 36 percentage points between the 2014 NJ ASK and the 2015 PARCC test.

Education Commissioner David Hespe.

Education experts, who gathered Tuesday in West Trenton to hear the state Department of Education announce the test results, said that PARCC provides a more accurate picture of student performance than New Jersey’s previous standardized assessments. Business leaders and college presidents criticized the previous standardized tests for not accurately gauging student ability and leaving too many graduates unprepared for college and jobs after high school.

“The (PARCC) scores will show that we have great challenges ahead,” said Education Commissioner David C. Hespe. “This misalignment means that our graduating students are not prepared for post-secondary success.”

Because PARCC is based on a different set of academic standards than the NJ ASK, Hespe warned against comparing the scores.

"We promised many years ago a more honest, a more accurate assessment regarding a child’s readiness to meet the challenge of college or career," he said. "That’s our promise to parents. That’s the promise I believe we’re fulfilling today and in the weeks to come.”

The PARCC test is designed to identify gaps in student knowledge and teacher instruction. Hespe said that detailed information will help teachers and school officials adapt lessons to particular skills and subject areas of weakness.

Too often, students' skill deficits are not addressed until they reach college, said Ramapo College President Peter Mercer. For example, about 30 percent of incoming Ramapo College freshmen need remedial coursework, which raises student debt and delays graduation, he said.

Ramapo is not alone in that statistic. Between 20 and 30 percent of incoming students nationwide need remedial coursework, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

That lack of preparedness also affects New Jersey's entry level workers, said Melanie Willoughby, chief government affairs officer at the New Jersey Business & Industry Association. About 73 percent of entry level workers have poor written communication skills, according to an employer survey by the association.

“We really have to have an outstanding, best state education system in the country, and we cannot settle," said Willoughby. “These scores are going to be absolutely critical to move the state forward.”

Not everyone in New Jersey feels the same way.

Wendell Steinhauer, president of the New Jersey Education Association, the largest teachers' union in the state, is critical of PARCC, which he said has taken away control from teachers and subjects children to too much testing.

“Parents and policymakers alike should be very careful about drawing any conclusions from the data released today, or from the more detailed data that will be released in the coming weeks," Steinhauer said in a statement. "The PARCC test is a deeply flawed assessment tool that was further compromised last year by widespread problems with technology and other issues associated with administering a new, unproven test statewide for the very first time."

Save Our Schools NJ, a grassroots parents group opposed to PARCC, said in a statement that the results mean "absolutely nothing."

"The PARCC tests have not been validated as useful or predictive of anything," Save Our Schools NJ said in a statement. "School districts across New Jersey have spent hundreds of millions of dollars and diverted precious instruction time in order to administer a test that gives parents and teachers no useful information."

Hespe said the scores, though preliminary, will lead a movement aimed at improving student performance through the use of New Jersey's seven Regional Achievement Centers, which work to improve schools, as well as put more of a focus on early childhood education.

Donald Webster, president of the New Jersey School Boards Association as well as the Manchester Township Board of Education, has hope that PARCC will give schools new tools to help students succeed.

“Ultimately we want all of our students to be successful," he said during a panel discussion organized by the Department of Education. "What we need to do is make sure that our students have skills and knowledge that they need to pursue their dreams."

Amanda Oglesby: 732-557-5701; aoglesby@GannettNJ.com

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