Posted: 9:00 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 28, 2015

EDUCATION

Scores down on harder state tests

By Mike Rutledge

Staff Writer

BUTLER COUNTY — 

Roughly two-thirds of Ohio public school students scored proficient or better on state tests last school year, a significant decline that Ohio Department of Education officials have attributed to harder Common Core-based tests.

The raw, preliminary results released by the state earlier this month are from the 2014-15 PARCC tests in English and math — which have since been abolished in Ohio — and from the AIR tests in science and social studies. Full state report cards with letter grades for districts and schools are not expected until January.

ODE officials would not offer comment or analysis on the scores, saying they were preliminary and subject to change.

Area school districts had a range of success on the tests, but even districts that did well on the tests won’t be especially sad to see PARCC tests replaced this school year.

“The tests aren’t going to be used again, so that has an effect on how valuable those results will be,” noted Randy Oppenheimer, spokesman for Lakota Local Schools.

Lakota’s students did much better than some other districts — each of the district’s grades generally passed at rates of 80 percent or higher.

But Lakota parents, teachers and students are happy to wave goodbye to PARCC tests, Oppenheimer said.

“People are very happy about that,” he said. “We met a lot of parents who were very concerned about an excessive amount of testing, and we as a school district were very concerned about an excessive amount of testing. And we put a lot of effort into sharing those thoughts with the legislators in Ohio, and they heard that, and heard other schools from around the state, and responded to it.”

The amount of time each test took students away from learning last year depended on the grade and subject, but the cutting of testing time this year will be significant, Oppenheimer said. Also: “The biggest change is that we’re only giving them once per year, instead of twice per year. We used to give them early in the school year and then at the year.”

This year’s tests will be given at the end of the school year.

This school year, “the English language arts and the mathematics tests will be new,” said Ohio Department of Education spokesman Toby Lichtle. “This year’s (science and social studies) tests will be apples-to-apples the same” as those taken last year, whose results were just unveiled, he added.

Lichtle said the Ohio General Assembly decided to stop using the PARCC tests because “there were complaints the tests were too long … (and) they were too cumbersome, and took too much time out of the classroom. Frankly, the PARCC tests did not go according to plan.”

In previous years, roughly 75 pecent to 80 percent of students statewide were graded proficient on the old Ohio Achievement Assessments. This time, about 70 percent of students were proficient or better on the English tests, about 65 percent met that mark on math tests, roughly 64 percent were proficient or better on the social studies tests, and 63 percent hit that mark in science.

There’s still some controversy about whether “proficiency” is enough. On the 5-point test scoring system, PARCC says students need a score of 4 to “meet expectations” of college and career readiness. But Ohio is declaring any student who scores a 3 as “proficient” (or passing), with a 4 counting as “accelerated.”

Between 35 percent and 40 percent of Ohio test-takers earned scores of 4 or better.

Statewide, charter schools’ results tended to lag below those of public schools. For instance, in the English section statewide, 71.7 percent of public-school sixth graders were “proficient” or better — basically passing; while 48.5 percent of those in charter schools passed, according to the state’s data.

Staff Writer Jeremy P. Kelley contributed to this report.

STUDENT PERFORMANCE

Listed below are the grade that had the highest percentage of students performing at the proficient level or better and the percentage of students who passed. Also listed is the grade with the lowest performance on the test, and the percentage of students who passed.

To see complete results for districts or charter schools, visit  http://www.tinyurl.com/OHparcc15" rel="nofollow - Carlisle Local

English – highest: sixth grade, 86.6; lowest: ninth grade, 79.7;

Math – highest: fourth grade, 80.5; lowest: eighth grade, 70.8;

Science – highest: high school, 80.5; lowest: fifth grade, 60.3;

Social Studies – highest: high school American history, 86.4; lowest: sixth grade, 46.4.

Edgewood City

English – highest: fifth grade, 84.5; lowest: eighth grade, 64.8;

Math – highest: fifth grade, 79.1; lowest: eighth grade, 50.9;

Science – highest: eighth grade, 68.9; lowest: high school, 61.8;

Social Studies – highest: fourth grade, 82.8; lowest: high school American government and sixth grade, 50.

Fairfield City

English – highest; ninth grade, 77.2; lowest fifth grade, 67.4;

Math – highest: sixth grade, 80.4; lowest: eighth grade, 59.1;

Science – highest: high school, 82.6; lowest: eighth grade, 63.4;

Social Studies – highest: high school American history, 78.4; lowest: sixth grade, 67.

Franklin City

English – highest: sixth grade, 82.2 percent; lowest: eighth grade, 69.1;

Math – highest: sixth grade, 75.3; lowest: eighth grade, 48.6;

Science – highest: high school, 83; lowest: eighth grade, 64.6;

Social Studies – highest: fourth grade, 83.9; lowest: high school American government, 64.1.

Hamilton City

English – highest: fourth grade, 74.8; lowest: eighth grade, 53.9;

Math – highest: third grade, 58.1; lowest: eighth grade, 36.5;

Science – highest: high school, 48.8; lowest: eighth grade, 42.1;

Social Studies – highest: high school American history, 62.9; lowest: sixth grade, 41.8.

Lakota Local

English – highest: sixth grade, 86.7; lowest: fifth grade, 80.9;

Math –highest: sixth grade, 86.1; lowest: eighth grade, 68.2;

Science –highest: high school, 85.4; lowest: eighth grade, 72;

Social Studies – highest: high school American history, 85.2; lowest: high school American government, 73.7.

Madison Local

English – highest: ninth grade, 89.2; lowest: eighth grade, 63.3;

Math –highest: fourth grade, 89; lowest: eighth grade, 54.3;

Science –highest: high school, 86.4; lowest: fifth grade, 64.2;

Social Studies – highest: fourth grade, 79.6; lowest: sixth grade, 44.3.

Middletown City

English – highest: fourth grade, 57.1; lowest: seventh grade, 43.8;

Math –highest: third grade, 49.4; lowest: eighth grade, 20.3;

Science –highest: high school, 37.9; lowest: eighth grade, 30.9;

Social Studies – highest: fourth grade, 53.1; lowest: high school American history, 29.6.

Monroe Local

English – highest: sixth grade, 84.2; lowest: ninth grade, 75.9;

Math –highest: sixth grade, 83.2; lowest: eighth grade, 71.9;

Science –highest: high school, 79.4; lowest: fifth grade, 73;

Social Studies – highest: fourth grade, 88.2; lowest: high school American government, 63.

New Miami Local

English – highest: fourth grade, 56.8 percent; lowest: fifth grade, 33.3 percent;

Math –highest: third grade, 50; lowest: fifth grade, 31.5;

Science –highest: eighth grade, 57.4; lowest: high school, 27.9;

Social Studies– highest: fourth grade, 63.6; lowest: sixth grade, 20.5.

Ross Local

English – highest: sixth grade, 91 percent; lowest: seventh grade, 72.4;

Math –highest: sixth grade, 89.3; lowest: eighth grade, 78.8;

Science –highest: high school, 96.1; lowest: eighth grade, 72.1;

Social Studies – highest: high school American history, 86.8; lowest: sixth grade, 76.7.

Talawanda City

English – highest: fourth grade, 81.5; lowest: eighth grade, 67.1;

Math –highest: sixth grade, 84.8; lowest: eighth grade, 67.6;

Science –highest: fifth grade and high school, 74.3; lowest: eighth grade, 66.5;

Social Studies – highest: fourth grade, 85; lowest: high school American government, 64.

Middletown Fitness & Prep Academy

English - highest: eighth grade, 75 percent; lowest: fourth grade, 45 percent;

Math - highest: eighth grade, 66.7 percent; lowest: fifth grade, 34.5 percent;

Science - highest: eighth grade, 50; lowest: fifth grade, 31;

Social Studies - highest: fourth grade, 40; lowest: sixth grade, 26.7;

Richard Allen Academy III

English - highest: fourth grade, 65; lowest: fifth and sixth grades, 56.5;

Math - highest: fifth grade, 31.8; lowest: sixth grade, 28;

Science - only testers: fifth grade, 35;

Social Studies - highest, fourth grade, 52.9; lowest, sixth grade, 15.

Summit Academy Community School for Alternative Learners of Middletown

English - highest: fourth grade, 35.7; lowest: sixth grade, 11.8;

Math - highest: fourth grade, 35.7; lowest: fifth and sixth grades, 5.9;

Science - only testers: fifth grade, 17.6;

Social Studies - highest: fourth graders, 14.3; lowest, sixth graders, 0.

Summit Academy Secondary School, Middletown

English - highest: ninth grade, 46.2; lowest: seventh grade, 33.3;

Math - highest: Algebra 1, 38.5; lowest, eighth grade, 7.1;

Science - highest: high school, 53.8; lowest, eighth grade, 20;

Social Studies - only testers, high school American history, 61.1.

Greater Ohio Virtual School

English - highest, ninth grade, 36.6; lowest: eighth grade, 28.6;

Math - highest: Algebra I, 50; lowest: Integrated Math I, 10;

Science - highest: high school, 28.1; lowest: eighth grade, 23.1;

Social Studies - highest, high school American history, 31.3; lowest, high school American government, 24.2.