WEST WINDSOR-PLAINSBORO: Students perform better than their peers on PARCC tests

By Lea Kahn, Staff Writer
WEST WINDSOR — Students in the West Windsor-Plainsboro public school district performed much better than their peers in New Jersey during the first year of testing with the newly adopted Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers tests.
The PARCC assessments focus on the skills students need today, including critical thinking, problem solving and reasoning. The tests replace the New Jersey Assessment of Skills and Knowledge tests for grades 3-10, and the High School Proficiency Assessment for 11th-graders.
The PARCC tests grew out of changes proposed by the New Jersey High School Redesign Steering Committee, which claimed that the HSPA did not measure college or work readiness skills. New Jersey colleges and universities did not use the HSPA scores in considering a student’s application, according to the committee.
The PARCC tests provide for five levels of achievement for students, said Martin Smith, the assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction. The levels are “not yet meeting grade-level expectations.” “partially meeting grade-level expectations,” “approaching grade-level expectations’ “meeting grade-level expectations” and “exceeding grade-level expectations.”
Students who score at levels 4 and 5 — “meeting grade-level expectations” or “exceeding grade-level expectations” — are deemed to be “on track” for college and career readiness, even at the third-grade level, Mr. Smith told the West Windsor-Plainsboro Regional School Board last week. He added that, “I know it’s early to say that,” about the youngest students who took the PARCC test.
Looking at the results of the first year of PARCC testing, 78 percent of West Windsor-Plainsboro third-graders met or exceeded expectations in language arts, compared to 44 percent of New Jersey public school students who took the test.
In sixth grade, 81 percent of West Windsor-Plainsboro students met or exceeded expectations in language arts. This compares to 49 percent of students statewide. In eighth grade, 85 percent of West Windsor-Plainsboro students met or exceeded expectations, compared to 52 percent of students statewide.
At the high school level, 72 percent of West Windsor-Plainsboro 11th-graders met or exceeded expectations in language arts literacy, as compared to 41 percent statewide. Overall, the district’s high school students outperform their peers statewide, Mr. Smith said.
The PARCC math results followed “fundamentally the same trends as language arts,” Mr. Smith said. In fourth grade, 76 percent of West Windsor-Plainsboro students met or exceeded expectations. Statewide, 41 percent of fourth-graders met or exceeded expectations. 