All Around Pennsauken

By the Pennsauken Board of Education: Nick Perry, President; Allyson Meloni-Scavuzzo, Vice President; Cheryl Duffy; Michael Hurley; Diane Johnson; Leona Moss; Meg Snyder; Orlando Viera; and JoAnn Young

At the September 2016 Board of Education Work Session, Director of Student Services Michael McGovern and Director of Curriculum Sandra Allen presented the Board of Education with the results of the spring 2016 PARCC tests. PARCC, which stands for Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, is the student assessment tool adopted by the New Jersey Department of Education to measure proficiency and progress in English language arts (ELA) and mathematics. The test is taken entirely online by students in grades three through 11. It was introduced and mandated for use two years ago, as New Jersey began to shift toward adoption of the Common Core Standards Initiative, a federal education initiative that delineates what students need to learn in the areas of mathematics and English language arts.

Pennsauken’s PARCC test results from spring 2016 were incredibly encouraging. We have seen significant improvement in nearly every grade level in the overall test scores. This illustrates that our students are closing the achievement gaps in the areas of English language arts and mathematics. Essentially, Pennsauken students are performing much closer to the state and national average overall. In certain grades, particularly in grade 11 English language arts scores, the results indicate that our students have actually exceeded the state and national average.

The overall PARCC test scores illustrate a positive trend that is being seen throughout the district. This began with institution of new comprehensive language arts and mathematics programs, which the Board of Education purchased just over a year ago. These integrated programs, combined with teachers dedicated to implementing the new curricula, appear to be having a significant positive effect on student performance.

It is important to mention that these recent scores were affected by the number of students taking the test. In spring 2016, we had increased participation from the year before, which was the first year that PARCC testing was used. The increase in the number of students helped to increase our scores by giving us a larger sample size. In this case, a very high or very low score has less of an overall impact on the average. Essentially, greater participation gives us a more accurate representation of Pennsauken’s performance on the test and thus, allows a clearer picture of our standing as compared to the state and national average. This is clearly seen in the 11th Grade ELA score. Where only about 170 students took the test in 2015, approximately 340 students took the PARCC in 2016. Our students went from scoring far below state and national averages to exceeding both, completely closing the gap.

Though the PARCC test is controversial for many reasons, its ability to evaluate teaching effectiveness, along with the test’s perceived increased difficulty level, has help to provide invaluable information. This test allows administrators and teachers to chart the progress of each student in the district from year to year. It also permits teachers and administrators to examine specific areas of weakness for each child, so that interventions can be tailored to increase the child’s achievement.

The Board is incredibly encouraged by the trend that was revealed in the results of the spring 2016 PARCC test. We look forward to seeing future progress through the implementation of the new initiatives and curricula in the Pennsauken School District. As always, we are grateful to our administration, staff, and community for supporting our students as they strive for excellence.

Board Bit Of The Month

New Jersey is one of 11 states that use the PARCC test to measure student progress.