PARCC Individual Score Reports went home today

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My daughter's (9th grade--Walls) scores came in the mail this week. They are her scores from 8th grade--and there was an interesting graph showing the breakdown of the scores from her 8th grade class...as in the percentage of kids who received a 5, 4, 3, etc. There was an alarmingly low percentage of 5s, but I too have heard that that was expected.

Also people--this is ONE test. No one should be looking at this ONE score as a prediction of future success in anything.

also, some very smart children are just not great test-takers...and some kids in the average range can do very well on tests.

Just my two cents...

I agree with you that some very bright kids do not do well on tests for a variety of reasons, I am not sure the converse you articulated is true, that average kids get very high scores. What is your thinking on this, that they guess well? It may be that they are very bright at what is being tested but are not brilliant in other areas but I think you take away too much from the kids that do very well that it is not indicative of anything. Saying someone may just test well is a put down to those students. They knew the correct answers to the questions, you cannot guess your way to a 5.

I don't think test scores are the be all and end all and it is more important to me that my child be challenged to work hard than to get an A. But I am proud of my child's scores and I do think they represent how my child is performing more generally as it all tracks.

I agree. Now, maybe what PP meant is that some bright kids who get a 5 might not have the best grades, becasue grades encompass behaviors and measure more than knowledge of the subject matter. Think of your absent minded professor kiddo who forgets to put his name on the paper and gets no credit for it, or has barely legible handwriting and gets marked down for it, or who routinely forgets to hand in work, etc. Bright kids don't always get A grades. Not that I know a kid like that

That's the problem right there. Grades should be based on content not behavior or whether I brought a pencil to class or put my name on my paper. Coming from another country I find this very peculiar about American schools, especially high school. When I look at my child's grade it should tell me how my child is doing in class, not that they are an A student but actually they have not grasped the content knowledge. If you must, give two grades on the report card for all this mish mash and the other for content, does my child know what they are supposed to know per the standards. There wouldn't be such drama about common core or PARC if grades in school really reflected content knowledge.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My daughter's (9th grade--Walls) scores came in the mail this week. They are her scores from 8th grade--and there was an interesting graph showing the breakdown of the scores from her 8th grade class...as in the percentage of kids who received a 5, 4, 3, etc. There was an alarmingly low percentage of 5s, but I too have heard that that was expected.

Also people--this is ONE test. No one should be looking at this ONE score as a prediction of future success in anything.

also, some very smart children are just not great test-takers...and some kids in the average range can do very well on tests.

Just my two cents...

I agree with you that some very bright kids do not do well on tests for a variety of reasons, I am not sure the converse you articulated is true, that average kids get very high scores. What is your thinking on this, that they guess well? It may be that they are very bright at what is being tested but are not brilliant in other areas but I think you take away too much from the kids that do very well that it is not indicative of anything. Saying someone may just test well is a put down to those students. They knew the correct answers to the questions, you cannot guess your way to a 5.

I don't think test scores are the be all and end all and it is more important to me that my child be challenged to work hard than to get an A. But I am proud of my child's scores and I do think they represent how my child is performing more generally as it all tracks.

I agree. Now, maybe what PP meant is that some bright kids who get a 5 might not have the best grades, becasue grades encompass behaviors and measure more than knowledge of the subject matter. Think of your absent minded professor kiddo who forgets to put his name on the paper and gets no credit for it, or has barely legible handwriting and gets marked down for it, or who routinely forgets to hand in work, etc. Bright kids don't always get A grades. Not that I know a kid like that

That's the problem right there. Grades should be based on content not behavior or whether I brought a pencil to class or put my name on my paper. Coming from another country I find this very peculiar about American schools, especially high school. When I look at my child's grade it should tell me how my child is doing in class, not that they are an A student but actually they have not grasped the content knowledge. If you must, give two grades on the report card for all this mish mash and the other for content, does my child know what they are supposed to know per the standards. There wouldn't be such drama about common core or PARC if grades in school really reflected content knowledge.

....to be honest I don't actually really believe in grades, but if you are going to use them at least let them mean something.

[Anonymous]

Have al schools sent out PARCC results? We are still waiting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Have al schools sent out PARCC results? We are still waiting.

Talk to your principal. Each school handled sending results to students/families.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My daughter's (9th grade--Walls) scores came in the mail this week. They are her scores from 8th grade--and there was an interesting graph showing the breakdown of the scores from her 8th grade class...as in the percentage of kids who received a 5, 4, 3, etc. There was an alarmingly low percentage of 5s, but I too have heard that that was expected.

Also people--this is ONE test. No one should be looking at this ONE score as a prediction of future success in anything.

also, some very smart children are just not great test-takers...and some kids in the average range can do very well on tests.

Just my two cents...

I agree with you that some very bright kids do not do well on tests for a variety of reasons, I am not sure the converse you articulated is true, that average kids get very high scores. What is your thinking on this, that they guess well? It may be that they are very bright at what is being tested but are not brilliant in other areas but I think you take away too much from the kids that do very well that it is not indicative of anything. Saying someone may just test well is a put down to those students. They knew the correct answers to the questions, you cannot guess your way to a 5.

I don't think test scores are the be all and end all and it is more important to me that my child be challenged to work hard than to get an A. But I am proud of my child's scores and I do think they represent how my child is performing more generally as it all tracks.

I agree. Now, maybe what PP meant is that some bright kids who get a 5 might not have the best grades, becasue grades encompass behaviors and measure more than knowledge of the subject matter. Think of your absent minded professor kiddo who forgets to put his name on the paper and gets no credit for it, or has barely legible handwriting and gets marked down for it, or who routinely forgets to hand in work, etc. Bright kids don't always get A grades. Not that I know a kid like that

That's the problem right there. Grades should be based on content not behavior or whether I brought a pencil to class or put my name on my paper. Coming from another country I find this very peculiar about American schools, especially high school. When I look at my child's grade it should tell me how my child is doing in class, not that they are an A student but actually they have not grasped the content knowledge. If you must, give two grades on the report card for all this mish mash and the other for content, does my child know what they are supposed to know per the standards. There wouldn't be such drama about common core or PARC if grades in school really reflected content knowledge.

I agree about grades being based on content understanding rather than behavior, but a grade isn't really a way to appropriately convey mastery of content. In Montessori, content understanding is conveyed as Introduced, Learning, Progressing and Mastered, or something along those lines. I know that Mastered means exactly that. If you have received a Mastered assessment, then that means you have met the standards or benchmark for your level and you can move on. It seems more challenging to convey an understanding of content with a letter grade. Does a "B" mean you are still learning it and are almost to full content knowledge or does "B" mean this is the best you are going to do, at this point in time, on understanding the content?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My daughter's (9th grade--Walls) scores came in the mail this week. They are her scores from 8th grade--and there was an interesting graph showing the breakdown of the scores from her 8th grade class...as in the percentage of kids who received a 5, 4, 3, etc. There was an alarmingly low percentage of 5s, but I too have heard that that was expected.

Also people--this is ONE test. No one should be looking at this ONE score as a prediction of future success in anything.

also, some very smart children are just not great test-takers...and some kids in the average range can do very well on tests.

Just my two cents...

I agree with you that some very bright kids do not do well on tests for a variety of reasons, I am not sure the converse you articulated is true, that average kids get very high scores. What is your thinking on this, that they guess well? It may be that they are very bright at what is being tested but are not brilliant in other areas but I think you take away too much from the kids that do very well that it is not indicative of anything. Saying someone may just test well is a put down to those students. They knew the correct answers to the questions, you cannot guess your way to a 5.

I don't think test scores are the be all and end all and it is more important to me that my child be challenged to work hard than to get an A. But I am proud of my child's scores and I do think they represent how my child is performing more generally as it all tracks.

I agree. Now, maybe what PP meant is that some bright kids who get a 5 might not have the best grades, becasue grades encompass behaviors and measure more than knowledge of the subject matter. Think of your absent minded professor kiddo who forgets to put his name on the paper and gets no credit for it, or has barely legible handwriting and gets marked down for it, or who routinely forgets to hand in work, etc. Bright kids don't always get A grades. Not that I know a kid like that

That's the problem right there. Grades should be based on content not behavior or whether I brought a pencil to class or put my name on my paper. Coming from another country I find this very peculiar about American schools, especially high school. When I look at my child's grade it should tell me how my child is doing in class, not that they are an A student but actually they have not grasped the content knowledge. If you must, give two grades on the report card for all this mish mash and the other for content, does my child know what they are supposed to know per the standards. There wouldn't be such drama about common core or PARC if grades in school really reflected content knowledge.

I agree about grades being based on content understanding rather than behavior, but a grade isn't really a way to appropriately convey mastery of content. In Montessori, content understanding is conveyed as Introduced, Learning, Progressing and Mastered, or something along those lines. I know that Mastered means exactly that. If you have received a Mastered assessment, then that means you have met the standards or benchmark for your level and you can move on. It seems more challenging to convey an understanding of content with a letter grade. Does a "B" mean you are still learning it and are almost to full content knowledge or does "B" mean this is the best you are going to do, at this point in time, on understanding the content?

NP - to me a A would mean the student had mastered 90% or more of the content introduced so far. And so forth.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My daughter's (9th grade--Walls) scores came in the mail this week. They are her scores from 8th grade--and there was an interesting graph showing the breakdown of the scores from her 8th grade class...as in the percentage of kids who received a 5, 4, 3, etc. There was an alarmingly low percentage of 5s, but I too have heard that that was expected.

Also people--this is ONE test. No one should be looking at this ONE score as a prediction of future success in anything.

also, some very smart children are just not great test-takers...and some kids in the average range can do very well on tests.

Just my two cents...

I agree with you that some very bright kids do not do well on tests for a variety of reasons, I am not sure the converse you articulated is true, that average kids get very high scores. What is your thinking on this, that they guess well? It may be that they are very bright at what is being tested but are not brilliant in other areas but I think you take away too much from the kids that do very well that it is not indicative of anything. Saying someone may just test well is a put down to those students. They knew the correct answers to the questions, you cannot guess your way to a 5.

I don't think test scores are the be all and end all and it is more important to me that my child be challenged to work hard than to get an A. But I am proud of my child's scores and I do think they represent how my child is performing more generally as it all tracks.

I agree. Now, maybe what PP meant is that some bright kids who get a 5 might not have the best grades, becasue grades encompass behaviors and measure more than knowledge of the subject matter. Think of your absent minded professor kiddo who forgets to put his name on the paper and gets no credit for it, or has barely legible handwriting and gets marked down for it, or who routinely forgets to hand in work, etc. Bright kids don't always get A grades. Not that I know a kid like that

That's the problem right there. Grades should be based on content not behavior or whether I brought a pencil to class or put my name on my paper. Coming from another country I find this very peculiar about American schools, especially high school. When I look at my child's grade it should tell me how my child is doing in class, not that they are an A student but actually they have not grasped the content knowledge. If you must, give two grades on the report card for all this mish mash and the other for content, does my child know what they are supposed to know per the standards. There wouldn't be such drama about common core or PARC if grades in school really reflected content knowledge.

I agree about grades being based on content understanding rather than behavior, but a grade isn't really a way to appropriately convey mastery of content. In Montessori, content understanding is conveyed as Introduced, Learning, Progressing and Mastered, or something along those lines. I know that Mastered means exactly that. If you have received a Mastered assessment, then that means you have met the standards or benchmark for your level and you can move on. It seems more challenging to convey an understanding of content with a letter grade. Does a "B" mean you are still learning it and are almost to full content knowledge or does "B" mean this is the best you are going to do, at this point in time, on understanding the content?

NP - to me a A would mean the student had mastered 90% or more of the content introduced so far. And so forth.

While an A probably does mean that the child has mastered content, the absence of an A does not always suggest lack of mastery. There are kids who master 100% of the content and get Bs. A "B" could mean the student has only mastered 80-89% of the content, but also could mean the child has mastered the content and possibly beyond, but didn't put his name on 4/10 homework papers, failed to turn in an assignment, didn't finish something because she got distracted, didn't show work in math, doesn't get how to please this particular teacher hen writing an essay, or isn't the "pet," etc. Generally, just not an organized, savvy, or conscientious student, but nonetheless completely and competently knows the material. A kid like this will have high standardized test scores (because that only measures mastery of content) and some Bs or even Cs as grades until maturity kicks in (or sometimes until they switch teachers). At least that is what I see at most schools I am familiar with. In upper elementary and middle school, the teachers are working to get students on track with responsibility and time management, and those skills, or lack thereof, are reflected in the grades. They are not just teaching content, and they are not just grading on content. Now if the child also has an IEP, there will be accommodations to mitigate this kind of behavior and its impact on the grade.