Sorry, you need to enable JavaScript to visit this website.

osse

Office of the State Superintendent of Education
 

DC Agency Top Menu

-A +A
Bookmark and Share

District of Columbia Releases Grades 3-8 Results from New State Assessment

Monday, November 30, 2015

Contact: Jessie Harteis (202) 344-9805; [email protected]

Today, District of Columbia education leaders released grades 3-8 results for the District’s new state assessments, the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC), which set a new baseline for how students in grades 3-8 are performing in math and English language arts.

These annual assessments replace the DC Comprehensive Assessment System (DC CAS) and measure students’ English and math proficiency in grades 3-8 and high school. Scores for high schools were released in late October; results for grades 3-8 are available now, along with high school results, at osse.dc.gov/parcc.

Eleven states and the District of Columbia administered PARCC for the first time last spring. The District moved to the PARCC assessments because they more accurately measure students’ progress toward acquiring the skills and knowledge needed for success in college and the workplace.

Score results for the PARCC assessments fall into five performance levels, with levels 4 and 5 indicating that students met or exceeded expectations and are on track for college and career readiness, and level 3 indicating that students approached expectations. 

Overall, 24 percent of grades 3-8 students in public and public charter schools met or exceeded expectations in math, and an additional 26 percent approached expectations. In English language arts, 25 percent of grades 3-8 students in public and public charter schools met or exceeded expectations, and an additional 24 percent approached expectations.

“PARCC gives us a new baseline to measure our kids’ readiness for college and careers,” said Mayor Muriel Bowser. “The District has made great progress in improving our education system.  We will use these results to build on our progress – to ensure that all of our students have pathways to the middle class.”

The following table shows the percentage of DC students in grades 3-8 who scored in each of the five levels on the PARCC assessments. Levels 4 and 5 indicate students are on track for college and career readiness.

The PARCC assessments, which are aligned to the Common Core State Standards, ask students to demonstrate their knowledge and apply their skills in areas such as critical thinking, analytical writing, and problem solving.

The District of Columbia transitioned to the Common Core State Standards in 2012 as part of a comprehensive plan to raise expectations and prepare students to succeed in college and career.

“Our students in the early grades have been exposed to rigorous, Common Core-aligned content and instruction since they entered elementary school and have been developing the knowledge and skills they need to be prepared for success in college and careers,” said State Superintendent Hanseul Kang. “I am confident that continued exposure to rigorous content and use of high-quality assessments over time will result in improved performance as these students progress through school.” 

Comparing the PARCC assessment results in grades 3-8 to those at the high school level show some promising trends for our younger students.

For example, while the percentage of students in grades 3-8 who met or exceeded expectations on the English language arts assessment (25 percent) is on par with the percentage at the high school level (25 percent), a greater percentage of grades 3-8 students are meeting or exceeding expectations in math (24 percent) compared to students at the high school level (10 percent).

Additionally, scores on the PARCC assessment show a large percentage of students in grades 3-8 who are on the cusp of progressing to levels 4 and 5, which indicate they are on track for college and career readiness, particularly in English language arts. The percentage of students in grades 3-8 who are approaching expectations in English language arts (24 percent) and math (26 percent) is greater than the percentage of high school students who are approaching expectations in the same subjects (17 percent in English II and 24 percent in math). 

Results from the PARCC assessments follow strong scores on the 2015 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), which tests students nationwide every two years in English language arts, math and other subject areas. NAEP results also were released in October.

The District was one of only three states to see improvements on the NAEP assessment in fourth grade math and one of 13 states to improve in fourth grade reading in a year when scores stayed flat or declined nationwide. Additionally, DC achieved the biggest gains of any state in fourth grade reading, and DC closed the gap with national peers. In fourth grade reading and math, the gap narrowed from 28 points and 29 points in 2003 to nine points in each subject in 2015.

“While I am pleased to see the growth on NAEP reflected in results from the PARCC assessments in the early testing grades, our results clearly indicate to me that we have more work to do in preparing all of our students for success beyond high school,” Superintendent Kang said.

Results from the grades 3-8 PARCC assessments show a significant gap between white students and other demographic subgroups in both reading and math. On the math assessment, 70 percent of white students met or exceeded expectations; 17 percent of black students and 22 percent of Hispanic/Latino met or exceeded expectations. On the English language arts assessment, 79 percent of white students met or exceeded expectations; 17 percent of black students and 21 percent of Hispanic/Latino students met or exceeded expectations.  

Results from the NAEP assessments, which have tracked results over much broader timeframe, show some promising indications that the District is on track for continued progress, with black students closing the gap with their peers nationwide by one percentage point in fourth grade math and two points in reading since 2003.

The District of Columbia Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE) will send student-level score reports to schools to share with parents and educators in December. In addition to receiving students’ individual score reports, parents will be able to access online tools to help bolster student skills, as well as learn more about how to use the results to inform conversations with teachers.

To support teachers and schools, OSSE continues to work with local education agencies to provide professional development and ensure every school has the resources it needs to support struggling students.  For more information about PARCC, parents and educators can visit osse.dc.gov/parcc.