Reply to PARCC Scores for Grades 3-8

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]This presentation is pretty good:

http://osse.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/osse/publication/attachments/OSSE%20PARCC%203-8%20ReleasePresentation_finalv14.pdf

What I find most interesting are the bar charts of aggregated test results by grade, which show a clear progression -- 3rd graders performed better than fourth-graders, fourth graders performed better than fifth-graders, etc. These results imply that DC's early childhood interventions *are working*, as well as improvements in elementary school education. It is expected that those younger students who have had more exposure to these changes would perform better.

My child attends a Title I preschool, where she is one of two white children in her class. [b]And at this stage, honestly, all the kids are about the same[/b]. At three years-old, they are all writing their names, telling stories, counting objects, etc. [b]I would not be surprised at all if that by the time this class takes the 3rd grade PARCC, their scores would be on par not just with the rest of the country, but that the gap between races would merge as well[/b].

As for the PARCC itself -- The presentation also has a nice comparison between a DC CAS math question and a PARCC question. It is just so obvious why the PARCC exam is superior and why teaching to this kind of test would be very different than teaching to the kinds of tests we grew up with. I have taken some of the practice exams to see what all the fuss is about and have been very pleasantly surprised by the level of critical thinking and skills that would be required to do well. We know that previous standardized exam systems have been failing our students -- and maybe even our own generation. I agree with the administration that this is a good baseline upon which to measure students' progress, rather than the CAS. Using the PARCC also frees up resources that had been devoted to the DC exam's design to more useful purposes. Maybe states can afford their own bureaucracies for designing  their own unique standards and exams, but DC cannot.

So. (1) Results show that DC actions to improve early childhood and elementary education are working, and that the more exposure students have to these changes, the better they perform; and (2) The PARCC is not just a more meaningful exam than the DC CAS, its adoption frees up District resources for other uses.

Parents, please stop trying to tear this down. My family is willing to give this system a shot, and we hope you do, too.

[/quote]

These are really nice thoughts and I hope you are right.  I do think that the achievement gap will narrow over time in DC.

But the economically disadvantaged 3 year olds are not the same, as a group, as those with higher incomes: not in terms of the number of the words they hear and the percentage of things said to them that are positive/instructional vs. scolding; how much they're read to; how much screen time they get and what they watch; access to creative toys like blocks and crayons; whether they're exposed to traumatic experiences like eviction, witnessing violence, involvement in the child welfare system, or absence/incarceration of a parent; how much sleep they get; risk of asthma, lead poisoning, and mental illness; nutrition and obesity; and probably a million other factors that are all compounded by racism (stereotype threat, disparate suspension rates, etc.).  Those things are not as obvious at age 3 as they will be at 6 or 12 or 17 but they exist now and the effects, and thus the gap, grows over time.  Not for all kids, but comparing groups to groups.

Also, you assume that the 30ish kids in your kid's PK3 class will be the same 30 in their 3rd grade class.  This isn't true.  Some kids will move out, with higher-income kids more likely to move to wealthy suburbs and private schools and higher-ranked charters and DCPS.  Some kids will move in, including kids whose family sees your school as an improvement over a lower-performing DC schools or kids who didn't do any PK anywhere.  The fact that 3rd grade performance is better than 4th which is better than 5th is not just because younger kids have had more early childhood interventions.  It's because the trend is that higher-performing kids leave and lower-performing ones stay or join the school.

Most "improvements" schools saw under the DC CAS were demographic changes--the school went from 98% poor to 90% poor and proficiency rates went from 32% to 40%.  Few schools actually seem to be good at reaching kids who are academically behind, and those that are seem either to be too punitive and regimented for most middle-class families (Achievement Prep, KIPP) or very focused on low achievers with little focus on kids who are on target or ahead.

So I hope things work out for your family, and for all the families who are taking a chance with kids in early grades at Title I schools.  Diversity is good.  Increasing neighborhood support for neighborhood schools is good (for the schools themselves, for property values, and to reduce traffic as fewer people drive their kids across town).  But only time will tell whether kids who scored a 1 on the PARCC this year will ever move up to 3s and 4s, and which schools are good at getting them there.  [/quote]

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