PARCC results show just over one-third of Ohio students met standards

A little more than one third of Ohio students met the higher academic standards on the new Common Core tests this year, early results from the PARCC testing coalition show.

Data shared with the state school board moments ago shows that between 35 and 40 percent of kids in most elementary and middle school grades “met expectations” or scored higher on their English and math exams, as set by officials of the 12 states still in PARCC.

The results are higher – more than 50 percent – on some of the high school exams, which were taken this year by a small number of advanced 9th graders.

These results are preliminary tallies and only include PARCC exams taken online – not any taken with paper and pencil.

Results are not yet available for individual students, schools and districts. Though students and parents should receive individual score reports this fall, school and district scores won’t be available until state report cards are out in January.

Officials from the 12 states remaining in PARCC recently set targets for what scores students need on the tests to earn certain rating levels:

1 — Did not yet meet expectations.
2 — Partially met expectations.
3 — Approached expectations.
4 — Met expectations.
5 — Exceeded expectations.

The Ohio Department of Education is proposing lining those up with the state’s five existing ratings of student performance:

1 – Limited
2- Basic
3- Proficient
4- Accelerated
5 – Advanced

That will have, for example, students that “Met Expectations” on PARCC rated as “Accelerated” by Ohio. And students will be labeled as “Proficient” by Ohio, even if they still just “Approached Expectations” of the 12 PARCC states.

That means that many more kids will labeled as “Proficient” than the PARCC states would consider as meeting expectations.

Jim Wright, ODE’s director of assessment, told the board this morning that shouldn’t be a concern.

Educators across the country have warned that scores and ratings would drop with the new tests. The proposed ratings will bring a drop, just not the “cliff” that people warned about, Wright said.

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