Source: PARCC Consortium (Oct. 5, 2015)
Understanding My Child's PARCC Scores
Q: When were the 2014-15 scores released?
A: During the summer of 2015, the student performance levels for PARCC were set based on the performance of all students. PARCC consortium members first needed to meet over the summer to review results from the spring 2015 tests and set “cut scores.” These determine what score each student must earn on the assessment in order to achieve a particular performance level. This is the standard method for determining those levels. PARCC score reports from the 2014-15 school year will be sent to homes using the following timeline:
Q: What do PARCC scores show?
A: This is the first year of results for the new PARCC state assessments. The PARCC test was designed to provide clear information on your child’s progress toward meeting grade level expectations and mastering important skills like critical thinking. The score report gives you a snapshot of how your child is progressing and shows where he or she excels or needs more support. This information, along with grades, teacher feedback and scores on other tests, will help give a more complete picture of how well your child is performing academically. Click here to see a sample mock student PARCC report and learn more about how parents and teachers can use the information on the score report.
Q: How can I use my child's scores to help my child(ren)?
A: The PARCC states have developed "Understand the Score" to help families understand how they can use the PARCC score reports to help provide additional support for all students.
Q: What does it mean if students’ PARCC scores "drop?"
A: Since PARCC is new—the first assessment designed specifically to evaluate progress toward our new standards—there is no “drop” in scores on a test that was never given before. Nor is there any statistical basis to compare these scores with other test scores, or to characterize them as “low.” This is a very different kind of assessment that asks students to analyze information and show their work; it’s not based primarily on rote memorization or multiple-choice responses, as many other tests are. That said, we are raising the bar and asking more of our students, so we should expect to see scores improve over time as students increasingly master new skills and knowledge.
Q: How were the scores determined?
A: Maryland relied heavily on the judgment of teachers, principals, higher education experts, and other educators. In fact, more than 200 educators (about 25 from Maryland) participated in a rigorous, extensive process, examining each test item and judging how well students would perform on that item. They also looked at results from similar assessments to determine the right score to represent each of the five performance levels.
Q: Why did some PARCC states release their information before Maryland?
A: Each state in the PARCC Consortium needs to inform its own state education board and commission members of the results. As the states keep their own calendars for this purpose, the announcements will not occur on the same day, or necessarily in the same month. While some states have decided to release preliminary test results, Maryland has never done so in the past, and will not set a new precedent now. Releasing preliminary data entails releasing certain raw scores, which are embedded in individual student records. Maryland will not release any information drawn from individual student records.
Moreover, to ensure that the test results are presented accurately, time is needed to analyze and compile the data that is embedded in both the online and paper-based tests that students took. If the Maryland State Department of Education was to initially release the results from just the online version of the test, they would ignore nearly 20% of the population who took the test on paper. That would present an inaccurate and incomplete portrait of how students performed statewide.
For all these reasons, Maryland will take the time that is needed to ensure that parents, educators, and administrators receive the most accurate and complete set of PARCC scores available.
Q: Why did we get the PARCC results back so late?
A: As with most new state assessments, it takes time to analyze, evaluate, and set the scores and performance ranges, since there are no prior-year benchmarks to rely on. It is not unusual for results from the first year of a new state assessment to take longer to generate than in subsequent years. State superintendents and commissioners also took great care in reviewing the performance levels for PARCC, to ensure that the levels were set in a way that would honestly reflect the rigor of this new assessment.
Q: What’s happening with PARCC during the 2015-16 school year?
A: Overall, the PARCC test will be shorter by about 90 minutes and there will not be as much time spent testing. Students will take PARCC in English Language Arts and mathematics after they have completed 80% of the school year or the course (in high school). This means there will be just one 30-day testing window, rather than the two testing windows in the prior school year. Here's a quick overview of the PARCC test design changes.
Q: When were the 2014-15 scores released?
A: During the summer of 2015, the student performance levels for PARCC were set based on the performance of all students. PARCC consortium members first needed to meet over the summer to review results from the spring 2015 tests and set “cut scores.” These determine what score each student must earn on the assessment in order to achieve a particular performance level. This is the standard method for determining those levels. PARCC score reports from the 2014-15 school year will be sent to homes using the following timeline:
- High school home score reports were given to students to bring home on November 13, 2015.
- Grades 3-8 home score reports were ready for homes on December 10, 2015 (with interim reports).
Q: What do PARCC scores show?
A: This is the first year of results for the new PARCC state assessments. The PARCC test was designed to provide clear information on your child’s progress toward meeting grade level expectations and mastering important skills like critical thinking. The score report gives you a snapshot of how your child is progressing and shows where he or she excels or needs more support. This information, along with grades, teacher feedback and scores on other tests, will help give a more complete picture of how well your child is performing academically. Click here to see a sample mock student PARCC report and learn more about how parents and teachers can use the information on the score report.
Q: How can I use my child's scores to help my child(ren)?
A: The PARCC states have developed "Understand the Score" to help families understand how they can use the PARCC score reports to help provide additional support for all students.
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Q: What does it mean if students’ PARCC scores "drop?"
A: Since PARCC is new—the first assessment designed specifically to evaluate progress toward our new standards—there is no “drop” in scores on a test that was never given before. Nor is there any statistical basis to compare these scores with other test scores, or to characterize them as “low.” This is a very different kind of assessment that asks students to analyze information and show their work; it’s not based primarily on rote memorization or multiple-choice responses, as many other tests are. That said, we are raising the bar and asking more of our students, so we should expect to see scores improve over time as students increasingly master new skills and knowledge.
Q: How were the scores determined?
A: Maryland relied heavily on the judgment of teachers, principals, higher education experts, and other educators. In fact, more than 200 educators (about 25 from Maryland) participated in a rigorous, extensive process, examining each test item and judging how well students would perform on that item. They also looked at results from similar assessments to determine the right score to represent each of the five performance levels.
Q: Why did some PARCC states release their information before Maryland?
A: Each state in the PARCC Consortium needs to inform its own state education board and commission members of the results. As the states keep their own calendars for this purpose, the announcements will not occur on the same day, or necessarily in the same month. While some states have decided to release preliminary test results, Maryland has never done so in the past, and will not set a new precedent now. Releasing preliminary data entails releasing certain raw scores, which are embedded in individual student records. Maryland will not release any information drawn from individual student records.
Moreover, to ensure that the test results are presented accurately, time is needed to analyze and compile the data that is embedded in both the online and paper-based tests that students took. If the Maryland State Department of Education was to initially release the results from just the online version of the test, they would ignore nearly 20% of the population who took the test on paper. That would present an inaccurate and incomplete portrait of how students performed statewide.
For all these reasons, Maryland will take the time that is needed to ensure that parents, educators, and administrators receive the most accurate and complete set of PARCC scores available.
Q: Why did we get the PARCC results back so late?
A: As with most new state assessments, it takes time to analyze, evaluate, and set the scores and performance ranges, since there are no prior-year benchmarks to rely on. It is not unusual for results from the first year of a new state assessment to take longer to generate than in subsequent years. State superintendents and commissioners also took great care in reviewing the performance levels for PARCC, to ensure that the levels were set in a way that would honestly reflect the rigor of this new assessment.
Q: What’s happening with PARCC during the 2015-16 school year?
A: Overall, the PARCC test will be shorter by about 90 minutes and there will not be as much time spent testing. Students will take PARCC in English Language Arts and mathematics after they have completed 80% of the school year or the course (in high school). This means there will be just one 30-day testing window, rather than the two testing windows in the prior school year. Here's a quick overview of the PARCC test design changes.