State releases preliminary PARCC results

Statewide scores for the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, or PARCC, tests are in and student scores will be comparable to other states for the first time, state superintendent John White said.

“Preliminary results reported yesterday (Monday) do not indicate radically different levels of student proficiency from what NAEP and LEAP have shown in recent years,” he wrote in his weekly newsletter Tuesday. “Roughly one third of students perform at the ‘mastery’ level, indicating they are on track in reading, writing and math for community college and university success.”

During a presentation Monday, White released the cut, or raw, scores which show the percentage of students for grades three through eight:

English Language Arts

Grade 3 – 64 percent met basic and above, 37 percent at mastery and above.

Grade 4 – 73 percent met basic and above, 39 percent at mastery and above.

Grade 5 – 67 percent met basic and above, 33 percent at mastery and above.

Grade 6 – 74 percent met basic and above, 38 percent at mastery and above.

Grade 7 – 67 percent met basic and above, 35 percent at mastery and above.

Grade 8 – 70 percent met basic and above, 40 percent at mastery and above.

Mathematics

Grade 3 – 67 percent met basic and above, 37 percent met mastery and above.

Grade 4 – 64 percent met basic and above, 33 percent met mastery and above.

Grade 5 – 59 percent met basic and above, 28 percent met mastery and above.

Grade 6 – 59 percent met basic and above, 26 percent met mastery and above.

Grade 7 – 58 percent met basic and above, 22 percent met mastery and above.

Grade 8 – 55 percent met basic and above, 32 percent met mastery and above.

Cut scores are the points on the test’s scale that indicate whether students have generally demonstrated performance on tasks throughout the tests.

According to the presentation, “states use the same process and formulae for converting raw scores into scale scores. They also use the same cut scores. This means that ‘level 4,’ or ‘mastery,’ represents a comparable level of performance in all participating states.”

Once the cut scores are determined, then the state produces reports for parents and teachers, school and district performance scores, guidance for principals and teachers setting evaluation targets, school and district letter grades, charter school renewals and scholarship school eligibility based on SPS or grades, and student and family eligibility for school choice.

High school performance scores and letter grades will be released no later than the week of Oct. 26-30. Elementary and middle school performance scores and letter grades will be released in December.