ADE announces PARCC scores for grades 3-8

About a third of Arkansas students in grades 3-8 “met academic expectations” in English language arts on the PARCC test administered at the end of the 2014-15 school year, while scores were somewhat worse in math, according to results released by the Arkansas Department of Education today at the State Board of Education meeting.

Students scored 1-5 on the Common Core-aligned tests administered by the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) consortium. A score of “4” meant the student “met academic expectations,” while a score of “3” meant a student “approached academic expectations.” A score of “5” meant a student “exceeded” expectations.

Scores for English language arts were as follows:

Grade 3: 29% scoring at least a 4; 54% scoring at least a 3
Grade 4: 34% scoring at least a 4; 64% scoring at least a 3
Grade 5: 32% scoring at least a 4; 63% scoring at least a 3
Grade 6: 33% scoring at least a 4; 66% scoring at least a 3
Grade 7: 35% scoring at least a 4; 63% scoring at least a 3
Grade 8: 32% scoring at least a 4; 60% scoring at least a 3

Scores for math were as follows:
Grade 3: 31% scoring at least a 4; 62% scoring at least a 3
Grade 4: 24% scoring at least a 4; 55% scoring at least a 3
Grade 5: 24% scoring at least a 4; 54% scoring at least a 3
Grade 6: 25% scoring at least a 4; 58% scoring at least a 3
Grade 7: 22% scoring at least a 4; 58% scoring at least a 3
Grade 8: 17% scoring at least a 4; 44% scoring at least a 3

Scores for grades 9-12 were released in October. Scores for individual high schools will be delivered to districts during the next two months.

Individual student scores will be mailed to parents. Prior to that mailing, a letter will be sent to parents by Education Commissioner Johnny Key explaining that a score of 4 or 5 “demonstrates the likelihood that students will be prepared for success in college and careers.” A score of 3, he wrote, means that “students are demonstrating some success but need improvement to fully attain the standards for college and career readiness.” Students scoring at lower levels need “intensive interventions from teachers to reach college and career readiness.”

This is the only year that students will take the PARCC exam, which was designed to measure student performance acrosss a consortium of states using the Common Core standards. Earlier this year, the State Board of Education bowed to pressure from Gov. Asa Hutchinson and legislators to remove Arkansas from the rapidly shrinking PARCC consortium. Next year, students will take the ACT Aspire exam.

Previously, Arkansas students participated in the Arkansas Benchmark and End-of-Course assessments, which compared students against state standards but not other states.