Monday, October 31, 2016

Hoboken School District Results of 2014-15 PARCC Scores for Ninth Grade Language Arts

Figure 1: Grade 9 Language Arts PARCC Results 2014-15
If there is any subject more important than Algebra I and Algebra II for economic and college success it is Language Arts. You need to be able to read, write, and communicate effectively. The following is some details concerning what is looked at in terms of the PARCC testing for Language Arts for Grade 9. In addition we include data centering on how Hoboken High School has done in Language Arts as well as comparison with other districts with similar socioeconomic demographics. 
What is PARCC? The Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) is a consortium featuring eight states, the District of Columbia, and the Bureau of Indian Education, that work to create and deploy a standard set of K–12 assessments in mathematics and English, based on the Common Core State Standards. The PARCC consortium was awarded Race to the Top assessment funds in September 2010 by the U.S. Department of Education to help in the development of the K–12 assessments. PARCC has included educators in the development of its assessments and will consult with more than 200 postsecondary educators and administrators in the development of the assessments.
From the data (see Figure 1) it appears that in 2014-15 Grade 9 scores in Language Arts was not only low...but among the lowest even in districts with similar students from the same socioeconomic demographics. It was not that long ago when Hoboken High School received back to back recognition by US News and World Report for their academics. Triangulating this data is the fact that the school district has failed its annual QSAC DPR in Instruction and Program for the fifth straight year. -Dr. Petrosino 


The New Jersey Student Learning Standards for English Language Arts (ELA) build on the best of existing standards and reflect the skills and knowledge students need to succeed in college, career, and life.
Here are the key aspects of the Standards: 
  • Literature and informational (nonfiction) text are important for our students and should maintain their rightful place in our classrooms; 
  • Background knowledge and motivation are critical to the success of students when learning to read and when accessing complex text; 
  • Research by students provides the opportunity to learn more about a subject, but equally as important, provides students the opportunity to look beyond their research to questions left unanswered (new avenues for student research); 
  • Using evidence remains a critical skill, interspersed throughout the standards, allowing students to ground their thinking in the work of authors and experts in literature and in the content areas; 
  • Literacy must be recognized and guided in content areas so that students recognize the academic vocabulary, media representations, and power of language inherent in the work of scholars and experts, and 
  • The importance of foundational skills in the early grades, as students learn to read, cannot be overstated and calls for targeted, sustained intervention at any point of struggle for a student.
From the 2015-16 Interim Review of the QSAC DPR in Instruction and Program we know that: The district received no points on the criteria of meeting the Annual Measurable Objective (AMO) in language arts literacy (LAL) for the district's total population.
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