1. Measuring College and Career Readiness
PARCC Results: Year One Little Falls Township Public Schools December 15, 2015
Measuring College and Career Readiness

2. Vision for public education in New Jersey
“New Jersey will educate all students to prepare them to lead productive, fulfilling lives. Through a public education system that is seamlessly aligned from pre-school to college, students will gain the requisite academic knowledge and technical and critical thinking skills for life and work in the 21st century.”
In 2008, the New Jersey High School Redesign Steering Committee finalized their report. Their work involved educators and stakeholders from across the state and had focused subcommittees on Special Education, Career and Technical Education, and the Abbott districts. After nearly a year, they formulated the above vision statement to guide what has become nearly a decade’s worth of work to deliver on this vision.

3. New jersey’s statewide assessment program
In 2015, New Jersey adopted the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) to replace HSPA and previous assessments in the elementary and middle school in language arts and mathematics.
Students took PARCC English Language Arts and Literacy Assessments (ELA/L) in grades 3 – 11.
Students took PARCC Mathematics Assessments in grades 3 – 8 and End of Course Assessments in Algebra I, Geometry, and Algebra II.
The PARCC assessments replaced our old assessments – the NJASK and the HSPA in language arts and math. Students began taking these assessments in third grade, as is required by federal law. As a result of a waiver won by the New Jersey Department of Education, students taking advanced coursework in middle school did not have to take two math tests. Instead, they took the assessment that was most closely aligned with their coursework. For example, a student in 8th grade who was taking Algebra I as a course was permitted to only take the Algebra I test and did not also have to take the 8th grade math test.

4. PARCC Performance levels
Level 1: Not yet meeting grade-level expectations
Level 2: Partially meeting grade-level expectations
Level 3: Approaching grade-level expectations
Level 4: Meeting grade-level expectations
Level 5: Exceeding grade-level expectations
In PARCC, student outcomes are divided into five performance levels. Level One describes student work in the assessment that does not yet meeting the grade-level expectations or the course expectations. Level Two describes student work that is partially meeting grade-level expectations. Level Three describes student work that is approaching grade-level expectations. Level Four describes work that meets grade-level expectations. Level Five describes work that exceeds grade-level expectations.
It’s important to recognize however that while PARCC is a meaningful assessment of student learning that provides useful information about a student, that New Jersey has been and remains committed to using multiple metrics in assessing student progress and attainment. Decisions about student placement in the next grade level or course have always been made by school districts and should always be fully informed by multiple sources of information, including teacher recommendations and parent input.

5. New Jersey’s 2015 PARCC Outcomes English language arts/literacy
Not Yet Meeting
(Level 1)
Partially
Meeting
(Level 2)
Approaching
Expectations
(Level 3)
(Level 4)
Exceeding Expectations (Level 5)
% >= Level 4
Grade 3
15%
18%
24%
39% 5%
44%
Grade 4 8%
27%
12%
51%
Grade 5 7%
26%
45% 6%
52%
Grade 6
16%
28%
40% 9%
49%
Grade 7
11%
23%
34%
Grade 8
22%
13%
Grade 9
19%
30%
10%
Grade 10
25%
20%
37%
Grade 11
17%
41%
Here are the statewide results of the first year of PARCC assessments in English Language Arts and Literacy. In third grade, 15% did not yet meet expectations, 18% partially met expectations, 24% approached expectations, 39% met the expectations of the grade-level or the course, and 5% exceeded expectations. Approximately 44% either met or exceeded the expectations of third grade language arts.
As we begin to unpack this data, we will look closely at the students in the Approaching Expectations category to see what types of changes need to be made to our curriculum and instructional practices. Perhaps these students missed out on an important concept?
<please note: some of these numbers have changed since the preliminary release of the PARCC data in October 2015>
Note: Numbers may not sum to 100% due to rounding.

6. New Jersey’s 2015 PARCC Outcomes Mathematics
Not Yet Meeting
(Level 1)
Partially
Meeting
(Level 2)
Approaching
Expectations
(Level 3)
(Level 4)
Exceeding Expectations (Level 5)
% >= Level 4
Grade 3 8%
19%
28%
37%
45%
Grade 4 7%
22%
30%
36% 4%
41%
Grade 5 6%
21%
32%
35%
Grade 6
Grade 7
33%
Grade 8*
26%
23% 1%
24%
Algebra I
14%
25% 3%
Geometry
12%
20%
Algebra II 2%
And here are the statewide results of the first year of the PARCC math outcomes.
There are some important things to note. As mentioned above, students took the assessment most closely aligned with their content in middle school. Thus, New Jersey’s eighth grade outcomes are not representative of eighth grade as a whole. Approximately 30,000 middle school students took the Algebra I assessment instead of the grade level assessment. Therefore, eighth grade math outcomes are artificially low as more advanced students were tested in Algebra I.
Also important to note is that as a state, we do see stronger performance in our earlier grades. This is a positive outcome as much of math skills and knowledge builds upon the prior years. Thus, it is not surprising to see weaker outcomes in our higher grade levels who have not benefitted from many years of full implementation of our new standards. Also important to keep in mind that we’ve never tested the course content of geometry and Algebra II statewide before. Thus, our math supervisors and educators have not had a tool to judge the alignment of advanced math courses to our standards before.
<please note: some of these numbers have changed since the preliminary release of the PARCC data in October 2015>
* Note: Approximately 30,000 New Jersey students participated in the PARCC Algebra I assessment while in middle school. Thus, PARCC Math 8 outcomes are not representative of grade 8 performance as a whole.
Note: Numbers may not sum to 100% due to rounding.

7. Count of Valid Test Scores Exceeding Expectation (Level 5)
Little Falls Township public Schools’ 2015 PARCC GRADE-LEVEL Outcomes English language arts/literacy
Count of Valid Test Scores
Not Yet Meeting
(Level 1)
Partially
Meeting
(Level 2)
Approaching
Expectations
(Level 3)
(Level 4)
Exceeding Expectation (Level 5)
District % >= Level 4
NJ % >= Level 4
Grade 3 83
10% 7%
17%
52%
14%
66%
44%
Grade 4 85 4% 6%
16%
60%
74%
51%
Grade 5
112 2%
19%
72%
Grade 6 90 1% 8%
29%
47%
63%
49%
Grade 7 99 5%
25%
Grade 8 96
22%
54%
13%
67%
This chart shows the district level outcomes for the first year of the PARCC assessment in each of the grade levels for English Language Arts and Literacy. The first column includes the count of valid test scores in the district.
<read grade three outcomes, such as: you’ll note that xx students in grade three received valid test scores, xx% are not yet meeting expectations…. XX% of third graders in this district met or exceeded grade level expectations compared to 44% of the third grade students statewide>
<note in discussing this slide where the data may not be representative of the district due to low participation in a particular grade level by comparing the valid test count to an approximate count of students enrolled in the grade level.>

8. Count of Valid Test Scores Exceeding Expectation (Level 5)
Little falls township public schools’ PARCC GRADE-LEVEL Outcomes mathematics
Count of Valid Test Scores
Not Yet Meeting
(Level 1)
Partially
Meeting
(Level 2)
Approaching
Expectations
(Level 3)
(Level 4)
Exceeding Expectation (Level 5)
District % >= Level 4
NJ % >= Level 4
Grade 3 85 2%
13%
15%
48%
21%
69%
45%
Grade 4 1%
32%
54% 0%
41%
Grade 5
112
19%
44%
34%
36%
Grade 6 90
12%
33%
46% 7%
53%
Grade 7 99 5%
20%
47%
23% 4%
27%
37%
Grade 8* 72
11%
42%
43%
24%
Algebra I 24
88% 8%
96%
<fill in your district’s results. DO NOT INCLUDE RESULTS IF THE NUMBER OF VALID TEST SCORES IS LESS THAN 11>
This chart shows the district level outcomes for the first year of the PARCC assessment in each of the grade levels and courses for math. The first column includes the count of valid test scores in the district.
<read grade three outcomes, such as: you’ll note that xx students in grade three received valid test scores, xx% are not yet meeting expectations…. XX% of third graders in this district met or exceeded grade level expectations compared to 45% of the third grade students statewide>
<also note in discussing this slide where the data may not be representative of the district due to low participation in a particular grade level by comparing the valid test count to an approximate count of students enrolled in the grade level.>
<note in discussing this data the extent to which grade level 8 math outcomes may not be representative of the larger grade eight outcomes due to student participation in Algebra I districts. For some districts, these comments may need to extend to grade 7 if students took Algebra I in that grade. For other districts, grade 8 outcomes may in fact represent grade level outcomes because very few students took Algebra I in the middle school. Use the test counts to assist you in drawing inferences about how representative this data is for your district>

9. Questions to Guide PARCC Data Reflection
How will we use PARCC data to identify strengths and gaps that exist in curriculum and instruction?
How will we use PARCC data to springboard pedagogical dialogue?
What can we learn about where additional professional resources are needed to meet the learning needs of all students?
In the next several months, we as a district will undertake an effort to learn what we can from the first year PARCC results. Of most importance is using this data to inform our understanding of our strengths and gaps in our curriculum and instructional practices. We’ve been working to implement our new standards in earnest for approximately two to three years and this is the first set of assessments that are aligned to those standards. Unlike our prior assessments, PARCC will provide the district with the ability to analyze our students’ outcomes at standards level. Thus, we’ll be able to reflect on our particular strengths and weaknesses.
<if the district has begun to formulate these plans, speak further about them!>
Also new in the PARCC assessment is the release of real test questions with real student work that has been annotated by the scores. Thus, for the first time, we can look at the test questions, review student work together and understand how the student work met or did not meet the expectations. Using these test questions will help our teachers understand the standards for students more fully. For many teachers, seeing how their students are assessed brings great clarity to what the standards actually mean.
<if the district has undertaken efforts or planned efforts to share the test questions in professional learning communities, say more here!>
Finally, a central goal will be to think about the types of supports that our educators need… what types of professional learning opportunities, what types of instructional resources are needed.
We believe that doing this work well will likely take us many months as we will engage teachers, supervisors, principals and others.

10. Resources for Parents http://understandthescore.org/
Before we conclude, I’d like to mention a set of resources that have been developed for parents to help them understand the new score reports. They can be found at the website listed above.

11. Video: Understanding the score report
There is a video there that will walk parents thru the report.
<if the district has the technical capacity, consider showing the video. It’s approximately 4.5 minutes long>

12. 2015-2016 PARCC Dates April 11 – 15 Grades 5 and 6

13. How can I get more information…
A Stroll through the PARCC
Thursday February 25, 2016
6:30 pm
School #1