MONTGOMERY: Township’s students outperform peers in statewide PARCC tests

By Lea Kahn, Staff Writer
MONTGOMERY — The results are in, and the township’s public school students outperformed their peers statewide in 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, Damian Pappa, the school district’s director of Data, Assessment and Accountability, told the township Board of Education Tuesday night.
Montgomery students in grades three through 11 were tested in English language arts literacy and mathematics, using the new PARCC assessments. Those tests replaced the New Jersey Assessment of Skills and Knowledge tests for grades three through 10, and the High School Proficiency Assessment for 11th-grade students.
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.
Looking at the results of the first year of PARCC testing, 62 percent of Montgomery third-graders met or exceeded expectations in English language arts/literacy, compared to 44 percent of New Jersey public school students.
In sixth grade, 77 percent of Montgomery students met or exceeded expectations in English language arts/literacy, in contrast to 49 percent of sixth-graders statewide. And at Montgomery High School, 86 percent of 11th-grade students met or exceeded expectations. Statewide, it was 41 percent.
Examining the math test results, 71 percent of third-graders met or exceeded expectations in Montgomery, as compared to 45 percent statewide. In sixth grade, 70 percent met or exceeded expectations versus 41 percent statewide.
The PARCC tests have five performance levels — 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 have scored at level 3 — “approaching grade-level expectations” — are at the cusp of meeting the standards, Mr. Pappa said. School district officials are trying to grasp why those students have not scored at a higher level, he said.
Mr. Pappa said he would like to see the individual students’ test scores. The state has not provided information on student performances in different demographic groups, he said, adding that it is one thing to understand a test score and another to interpret it.
After the school board meeting, Superintendent of Schools Nancy Gartenberg said it is clear that Montgomery Township students performed well. Nevertheless, the district does not have enough information yet to determine whether any changes need to be made to the curriculum. 