Student proficiency results released

Staff writers

Results for assessments designed to show New Mexico schools’ proficiency in meeting common core standards were released Thursday, showing mixed results for area districts.

The Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, or PARCC, assesses third-12th grade students’ proficiency in English language arts, math, geometry and Algebra.

Final results in each subject were categorized at five levels:

• Level 1: Did not yet meet expectations

• Level 2: Partially met expectations

• Level 3: Approached expectations

• Level 4: Met expectations

• Level 5: Exceeded expectations

“We have calculated the results that we have just received and compared the results to last year's test,” said Clovis schools Superintendent Jody Balch. “The comparison is the difficult piece, because there are a couple of ways to make the comparison.”

Balch said the best way to compare is to follow each student and look at their individual growth each year.

“For a quick snapshot of what the district has done, we'll compare the growth from this year's results to last year's results at each grade level,” he said.

“The district had 97 different groups and tests administered during the last PARCC session; we showed growth in 58 of those opportunities. The district missed growing in 15 other opportunities by less than 2 percent. So overall, we have a lot of work to do, but we're making progress.”

In Portales, a large percentage of students met expectations in several subjects, but 41.8 percent of 196 students did not yet meet expectations in Algebra II, which Portales Municipal Schools Assistant Superintendent of Instruction David Van Wettering said is one of the most difficult tests across the state.

“Those are some of the lowest scores regardless of what you’re talking about. Already, we’ve got teachers revisiting curriculum maps. We’re going to get better information this year from the state and PARCC that actually kind of breaks down a little bit better where our strengths and weaknesses are, because even within Algebra II — which the scores aren’t what we wish they were — we’ll have strengths and weaknesses and be able to look at those and know what we need to focus on more,” he said.

Dora Consolidated Schools prepares for the PARCC by teaching “a rigorous curriculum all year long,” according to Superintendent Steve Barron.

According to PARCC scores, 31.3 percent of the 16 Dora students that took the eighth grade math assessment partially met expectations (level two), a figure which Barron said does not account for the 45 percent of Dora eighth graders that did not take the assessment.

“Forty-five percent of our eighth-graders took Algebra I. So as a class, 18 percent scored at level two, not 31 percent of our eighth-graders. The reason is because the data pulled out all of our honor students that took Algebra I out of the figure,” he said.

However, 59.1 percent of the students who took the third grade language arts assessment met expectations (level four), which Barron attributes to “our K-3 teachers moving every child forward and implementing a very strong response to intervention model.”

Melrose schools Superintendent Jamie Widner said his district did much better this time than the first time, especially in English language arts.

“Our result in language arts was better than expected, but we can always get better,” Widner said. “We didn't progress as much in math as in English but hope to continue to progress in each area.”