Educators: Little info in PARCC data

Thirty to 40 percent of Louisiana students scored at the masterly level and above on Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers assessments, according to information released Monday by state Superintendent John White.
PARCC assessments, also known as Common Core, test a student’s proficiency in skills needed in community colleges and universities. It is not focused on grade-level mastery.
The preliminary report does not provide much data for school leaders to decipher as they now prepare for next year’s test. It lists only state data and grade-level information.
No specific school system information by parish is listed.
“The information from the state is raw data,” said St. Mary Parish Superintendent of Schools Leonard Armato. “Everybody wants to get anything they can get right now because they have nothing.”
“From a teacher’s perspective,” said Debbie Meaux, president of the Louisiana Association of Educators, “it’s very frustrating not to have the information that you need in order to determine where children individually need help and where you need to target individual instruction for each child.”
PARCC assesses reading, writing and math in grades 3 through 8.
Students demonstrate a mastery of combined standards in multistep tasks. Past standardized tests only required students to fill in a bubble.
Students will continue to take the LEAP and iLeap tests for social studies and science.
Before PARCC, LEAP tests were used to decide whether students were passed on to the next grade or retained.
Only fourth- and eighth- graders take the LEAP test. Students taking the iLeap test are in grades 3, 5, 6, and 7.
With PARCC now in place, the St. Mary Parish school district decided that fourth- and eighth-graders who fail math or English for the year will have to go to summer school for both subjects, said Teresa Bagwell, St. Mary Parish Assistant Superintendent of Schools.
School systems throughout the state will receive district and school performance reports Oct. 19.
Individual student reports for districts, teachers and families will be available Nov. 9.
School districts have already been told they can expect another late distribution of test scores next, Bagwell said.
“That is a major problem,” Meaux said. “The test — if they aren’t scored and produced much earlier than what they have been this year — then it’s really useless to teachers.”
Today, the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education will consider cut score levels to determine standards proficiency as advanced, mastery, basic, approaching basic, and unsatisfactory.
Cut scores are the points on a test scale used to determine performance level with Level 1 being unsatisfactory and Level 5 being advanced.
Only after cut scores have been determined by BESE can the state produce documentation, such as school and district performance scores and reports for teachers and parents.
There are no explanations for White’s delay in releasing information, only speculation, Meaux said.
The percentage of students in grades 3 through 8 scoring at mastery and above in English language arts ranges from 33 to 40 percent. Fifth-graders scored on the low end, and eighth-graders scored highest.
The percentage of students in grades 3 through 8 scoring at mastery and above in math ranges from 22 to 37 percent. Seventh-graders scored lowest and third-graders ranked highest.
Sixty-seven percent of fifth graders scored at levels basic and below in English language arts. Seventy-five percent of sixth graders scored at levels basic and below in math on the assessment.
Basic is considered level 3 of 5. It is below mastery.
“Between 2017 and 2025, the state’s accountability system will increasingly reward mastery results more and basic results less,” according to White’s media briefing.
Students in Arkansas, Colorado, District of Columbia, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New Jersey, New Mexico, Ohio, and Rhode Island took the PARCC assessment in spring 2015.

This story was written by Shea Drake of The Daily Review staff. Reach her at sdrake@daily-review.com