PARCC results mixed for RRPS
Scores drop in 3rd, 4th grade reading
Rio Rancho Public Schools continues to outpace most of the state on PARCC, though English scores dropped slightly compared to 2015.
Overall, 29.2 percent of RRPS students reached the benchmark in math and 38.3 percent in English, compared to 19.9 percent and 27.7 percent, respectively, for New Mexico as a whole, according to data released by the Public Education Department on Thursday.
But the district saw a decline in English, dropping 3.67 percentage points compared to 2015, and only gaining 1.72 percentage points on math.
Of the 89 school districts in New Mexico, 57 improved in English and 77 in math.
The average increase statewide was 1.3 percentage points across all grades for English and 2.5 percentage points for math, with some districts jumping as much as 8 percentage points.
Carl Leppelman, RRPS associate superintendent of curriculum and instruction, attributed the decline to the test delivery method.
Third- and fourth-graders took the PARCC exam on paper in 2015, but switched to computer in 2016. They saw significant drops in English, which demands keyboarding skills to fill in responses.
Last year, 37.9 percent of the district’s students met benchmarks in third-grade reading, but that number fell to 27.4 percent this year. Similarly, fourth-grade reading dropped from 44.1 percent proficiency in 2015 to 32.7 percent in 2016.
“We anticipated there would be some decline, we didn’t know to what degree,” Leppelman said. “You see that nationwide with a switch to computer.”
Happy Miller, RRPS accountability chief, noted that the third- and fourth-graders pulled down the district’s English average, but sixth- and 10th-graders actually earned
better scores in the subject.
“I think it is misleading to say the whole district went down (in English),” she said.
RRPS spokeswoman Beth Pendergrass said the scores reinforce the district’s emphasis on teaching computer skills.
This past spring, the district purchased a new English curriculum that blends digital components and hard copy text, in alignment with Common Core standards.
In neighboring Albuquerque Public Schools, kids also stumbled on English.
APS students scored slightly above the state average — 20.4 percent were proficient in math and 28.1 percent in English — but they fell 1 percentage point in English compared with 2015 and only saw a 1 percentage point improvement in math.
The worst decline for APS was also third-grade English: 21.4 percent met reading standards this year, a 10-point drop over the past year.
“The results do show that both as a district and as a state the need to do more to help students achieve at a higher level,” APS Superintendent Raquel Reedy said in an emailed statement. “Proficiency rates below 50 percent are just not acceptable and we will be working with students, teachers and families to address deficiencies. We are committed to putting resources at schools and redesigning teaching and learning so that more students succeed.”
Las Cruces improved by about 3 percentage points on math and English, reaching 19.6 proficiency and 27.5 percent, respectively.
Santa Fe dropped below the state average in both English and math, hitting 25.7 percent proficiency and 16.5 percent proficiency, respectively. Los Alamos again was a standout — over 50 percent of its students met or exceeded expectations on many tests.
New Mexico Secretary of Education Skandera highlighted successes in Farmington and Gadsden, which she said have embraced reforms and tracked data to make instructional changes.
The two rural districts are performing better than most of the state and saw large gains. Farmington went up more than 8.5 percentage points in English to 36.3 percent proficiency.
“If you push to improve, the sky’s the limit,” Skandera said.
But the secretary stressed that New Mexico still has a long way to go on education.
“We established the baseline last year, and we’re on our way with good improvements,” she told the Journal. “We have never seen this kind of improvement across grade levels in our recent history. … We need to keep pushing for where we want to be next.”
Skandera praised the high participation rate in the controversial test, which drew protests and walkouts in 2015, the first year it was administered.
Ninety-seven percent of New Mexico’s students in grades 3-11 — 217,000 kids — took PARCC in 2016, compared with 95 percent in 2015.
But American Federation of Teachers New Mexico President Stephanie Ly said the overall results prove that PARCC is not working for students.
“With the release of this year’s scores, Secretary Skandera is now championing minimal gains in PARCC scores,” she said in an emailed statement. “Despite small increases, the fact remains that across the board, New Mexico students are not proficient, according to PARCC.”
Eleven states administer PARCC, which stands for the Partnership for Assessment and Readiness for College and Careers. The computerized exam is designed to align with Common Core and raise standards.