By Briana Vannozzi
Correspondent
As the scores trickle in and national comparisons become available, state education leaders are pointing to evidence they say shows the much-debated PARCC assessment might not be that bad.
David Hespe the Commissioner for the Department of Education said, “New Jersey is actually a very high performing state in terms of the PARCC consortium average and in relation to other states, and that I think provides some additional context.”
At its monthly board meeting in Trenton today, the state Board of Education got to see how New Jersey stacked up to the PARCC average. Roughly 40 percent of students in grades 3 through 7 met or exceeded expectations in math compared to an average of roughly 32 percent for the 10 other states that participated but that number dipped for 8th grade – down to 24 percent compared to 27 percent nationally.
Hesse continued, “If you look at the bar graphs we are lagging a little bit but you also have to remember that one third of our 8th graders actually took the algebra 1 assessment which means their scores were counted against all other algebra 1.”
That test is typically taken at the high school level. New Jersey’s scores for English language arts in grades 3 through 8 also outranked the PARCC average consistently touching the 50 percent mark. The department said today they weren’t surprised to see younger grades faring better.
Jeff Hauger the Acting Chief Performance Officer for Department of Education said, “at the high school level, when we transitioned to the common core, a few years ago, they sort of had a later jump and some of those shifts may have caused that performance which is why I think this is an opportunity to learn. And that’s why I like to see in the younger grades comparatively they’re doing rather strong.”
State level data released in October showed more than half of students in every grade level didn’t meet expectations in the math assessment and most missed the mark for English as well. Only 41 percent of the nearly 100 thousand high school seniors passed the language arts tests in 11th grade and just 23 percent passed algebra two. Today Hespe said these initial numbers should be looked at strictly as a learning tool to improve instruction. “What’s important is that we have some ability to see how our kids are doing in relation to others inside New Jersey, outside New Jersey and even nationally and internationally, this comparability is a very important piece to what we’re trying to accomplish.”
That goal is to better prepare students for graduation, college and beyond. Critics say the tests only further complicate the ever-fluid graduation requirements and they’re hoping to learn more from individualized reports being mailed out to families this week.
Board members emphasized this round of results took longer to release because of the complicated process in determining scores for this first PARCC assessment. Next year though, parents and students can expect to receive them, by June.