Fewer Than 60 Percent of New Jersey Students Are “Proficient”

New Jersey released their PARCC test scores last week, and while they could point to some gains overall, there isn’t anything to be excited over.

John Mooney with NJSpotlight.com reports:

For the administration, it was largely good news, as officials highlighted the statewide gains in the third year of the testing that has roiled the state. An additional 88,000 were meeting the proficiency scores in language arts, and another 70,000 in math.

…. But the gaps remained deep and wide, and even improvements needed to put into context.

For instance, in no grade did proficiency levels statewide hit 60 percent in either math or language arts. They dropped as low as 28 percent in math in 8th grade statewide.

Some are blaming the test. Some are blaming the public education system. How about looking at the standards PARCC aligned its assessment with?

I wouldn’t be surprised to see New Jersey abandon the PARCC ship soon. They seem ripe for it, but until they dump Common Core assessment scores won’t improve. We’ve seen dismal scores from states with Common Core whether they use PARCC, Smarter Balanced, or some other aligned assessment.