Watertown students who took the PARCC test for the first time last year fared better than the state average, but school officials say they have little information to work with to analyze where students can improve or even what they were tested on.
The Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers test is proposed as a national standardized test and was taken by Watertown students in grades 3-8 last spring.
Overall, 66 percent of Watertown students scored in level 4 or 5, which would be meeting or exceeding expectations, for English Language Arts (ELA), and 52 percent of students reached level 4 or 5 on the math tests, said Barbara Gortych, the district’s director of Assessment, Guidance, and Mental Health. Statewide the figures were 60 percent for ELA and 52 percent for math. In MCAS, a level 4 would be “Proficient” and level 5 would be “Advanced.”
Not all students in Watertown took the PARCC. Other grades took the state’s MCAS test, and scores from that test were reported in October (click here for details).
On the ELA test, Watertown students fared better on the PARCC than the state average in all but one grade level (eighth). In math, the district only scored better that the state in three of six grades.
More than half of Watertown students fell into level 4 or 5 in all but the grade 7 and grade 8 math tests. The top scores came in grade 5 ELA, where 76 of the Watertown students got level 4 or 5, and grade 7 ELA where 73 percent made that mark. In math, grade 4 and grade 5 had the highest proportions in level 4 and 5 with 57 percent and 60 percent, respectively. (See how all the grades fared below).
Maureen Regan, the 6-12 English Language Arts coordinator, said the schools did not make drastic changes in the way classes are taught to prepare for the PARCC test.
“We decided we should stay the course and challenge our students, no matter the test we use” Regan said.
School Committee member Julie McMahon said she was glad to hear Watertown was not “teaching to the test.”
Dan Wulf, the grade 6-12 math coordinator, said that the scores in eighth grade, and other grades, do not determine a student’s future. Only the 10th grade MCAS exams are graduation requirements.
“To us it is a path to graduation,” Wulf said. “We look at eighth grade as a part of the path, not the end.”
Frustration
While Watertown school officials got their hands on the overall and student scores, they had a hard time getting more details on what types of questions students fared well on or on which they needed more work. They also struggled to find out what questions were being asked.
Regan said that differs from the experience with the MCAS.
“The MCAS releases all the tests and all the questions,” Regan said.
PARCC said they would release a portion of the test, but to do so they asked for some of Regan’s personal information.
One of the things she received was passages that the students were asked to read and about which they responded to questions. A passage on the ELA test for the sixth graders was written by James Joyce, and she said it included three words which she believes high schoolers would find challenging to define.
School officials also struggled to get information about how to respond to parents who have questions about how their child did on the test. This is not new, Gortych said.
“From the beginning of PARCC field tests, from a responsiveness perspective the organization has been terrible,” Gortych said.
Regan said if parents have questions, they should contact their school and ask to speak to the coordinator for that subject.
Test Analysis
In past years, Wulf has compared cohorts of students – children of the same age as they move through the grades – to see how they progress, and see how different groups compare at the same grade level. He will not able to compare the PARCC tests with the prior MCAS tests, however.
The PARCC is a new type of test, which focuses on how students come to answers and looks at critical thinking, while the MCAS is a more traditional standardized test. Not all Massachusetts school districts took the PARCC. More than half, 54 percent took the PARCC, while 46 percent remained with MCAS.
The State Board of Education was considering whether to use the PARCC as the main standardized test. It turns out, however, it will only be a short-lived one in Watertown and the Bay State. State education officials voted in November to not go with the PARCC test, or the MCAS, but what Watertown officials call MCAS 2.0 – a hybrid of both tests.
Watertown will take the PARCC again this year for some grades. The new test is supposed to debut in 2019, Gortych said.
PARCC Scores – Watertown vs. Massachusetts
Grade 3 (% Level 4 and 5, Average Scale Score)
- Watertown Public Schools ELA – 55%, 756
- State ELA – 54%, 752
- WPS Math – 51%, 749
- State Math – 55%, 752
Grade 4
- WPS ELA – 70%, 765
- State ELA – 57%, 755
- WPS Math – 57%, 753
- State Math – 48%, 748
Grade 5
- WPS ELA – 76%, 766
- State ELA – 63%, 758
- WPS Math – 60%, 755
- State Math – 55%, 752
Grade 6
- WPS ELA – 62%, 759
- State ELA – 60%, 756
- WPS Math – 50%, 747
- State Math – 53%, 751
Grade 7
- WPS ELA – 73%, 764
- State ELA – 61%, 757
- WPS Math – 47%, 747
- State Math – 45%, 756
Grade 8
- WPS ELA – 63%, 759
- State ELA – 64%, 760
- WPS Math – 49%, 751
- State Math – 53%, 751