More than 60 percent of Arizona students in most grade levels failed the state’s Common Core-based standardized test.
About two-thirds of the state's students failed the reading and math portions of the test last year, the first time it was administered.
This year, statewide reading and math scores in most grades increased by single digits. Test results in eighth-grade reading and math and 10th- and 11th-grade English language arts declined compared with last year.
According to the article linked to below
"These are new, difficult tests that require students to think, ???? not memorize and regurgitate," said Joe O'Reillyn[seen in the image to the the right from a Rotary Club meeting last year], executive director for student-achievement support at Mesa Public Schools.
O’Reilly, executive director of Student Achievement Support from Mesa Public
Schools and former president of the National Association of Test Directors,
explained how AzMERIT performance levels were set.
The Arizona
Department of Education had teachers develop Performance Level Descriptors,
detailed descriptions that describe the skills and abilities that students must
demonstrate for each performance level. Descriptors include four levels ranging
from Minimally Proficient to Highly Proficient.
Teachers reviewed the
Performance Level Descriptors, established the cut points and came to a
consensus. The State Board of Education accepted the teachers’ recommendations
with no changes,
Eighth-grade state math scores had the sharpest decline — 8 percentage points. This year, 26 percent of eighth-graders passed the math portion, down from 34 percent last year.
Elementary students, particularly those in grades 3-5, maintained the highest passing rates in the state. Those were the only grade levels this year to have overall proficiency rates higher than 40 percent in reading and math.
Third-grade reading scores remained stagnant at a 41 percent passing rate. More of the state's third-graders — about 45 percent — scored in the lowest performance level of "minimally proficient" than in 2014-15.
The state Board of Education discussed the statewide scores at a meeting today
You might want to read this online report from The Arizona Republic
Ricardo Cano, The Republic | azcentral.com
12:08 p.m. MST June 27, 2016
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