Across the District, 25 percent of students between third and twelfth grades are proficient in math and 27 percent are on track or better in English—improvements of 3 and 2 percentage points, respectively. The results of annual tests released today also showed a slight narrowing of the achievement gap in English at DC Public Schools and both subjects in D.C. Charter Schools.
The Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, or PARCC, is the city’s annual assessment that tracks students’ math and English skill levels. In the 2014-2015 school year, D.C. adopted PARCC and ousted its predecessor, the DC Comprehensive Assessment System (CAS). The city joined 11 states in developing the new exam, which aligns with the Common Core standards.
Last year, Councilmember David Grosso, who chairs the Committee on Education, said that while the city knew that the new test would be more difficult for students, “we also knew that it was important for us to raise our standards.”
Students strive to reach a level 4 or 5 in both subjects, which means they are proficient or better, according to D.C. State Board of Education’s standards. The test is given to students in grades 3 through 8, as well as high schoolers.
According to results released today, 25.5 percent of DC Public Schools students met or exceeded expectations on English assessments, while 23.9 percent met or exceeded expectations on math assessments, showing an increase of 3 percentage points in math scores and a very slight .3 percentage point increase in English scores compared to the 2015 scores.
While white students saw a 4.8 percent decline in English from last year, black and Hispanic students’ English proficiency each increased by 1.2 percent.
Officials attribute white students’ overall decrease to a 28.9 percent decline in English proficiency scores at Wilson High School, where one in four students is white, according to The Washington Post. “We don’t think it is a learning loss,” Michelle Lerner of DCPS told The Post. “We think it is that we did not stress the importance of the exam enough to the Wilson community.”
But in math proficiency, white students saw a 3.9 percent increase from last year, the largest improvement of all student demographics. Black and Hispanic students saw smaller gains—2.2 and 2 percentage points, respectively.
The results for D.C. Charter Schools, meanwhile, show a small dent in the achievement gap in both subjects. Black and Hispanic students each posted gains of about 3 percentage points on math, whereas white students dropped by 4 percent (but still had nearly three times as many students who met or exceeded expectations). In English, Latino students improved by 7 percentage points and black students improved by 4 percentage points. White charter students saw their scores fall by 5 percent (but, again, still had nearly three times as many students who met or exceeded expectations).
Families will receive individual score reports in September.
2016 Parcc Final Results by Christina Sturdivant on Scribd
