PAVE Parents and Supporters,

This morning, the city released the results of the 2016-17SY Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) at Watkins Elementary School in SE, a school that saw increases in both ELA and Math. So, what is the PARCC, how did our schools do, and what do the scores mean?

All DC public school students – charter and traditional – in 3^rd through 8^th grade, and ONLY 10^th grade in high school, take the PARCC. PARCC replaced our city’s DC CAS in 2015 and nationally looks at students’ college and career readiness.

PARCC is aligned with the Common Core State Standards. Governors and state education leaders from around the country shared the concern that our students were not able to succeed in college and careers – and state colleges noticed that students were not coming in ready to do college-level work, which then impacted their long-term success. Those state concerns led to the creation of the Common Core and teachers were deeply involved in writing and creating the standards.

Three-Minute Video Explaining the Common Core State Standards

Today, school districts select their own curriculum that is tied to the Common Core that they use to teach students during the school year. And then, in the spring, students take the PARCC which looks at the skills they should have for their grade level if they want to be on track for college and careers. In an increasingly technological world, and because those skills are needed in school and in careers, PARCC is normally taken on a computer.

With a national assessment, parents and educators can use the results to learn how their students compare to the national average – so not just how their students compare to other DC students but how their students compare to students across the United States.

About the PARCC Assessments

Thanks to the hard work of our students, teachers, school leaders, and families, the city has been improving our students’ performance on the PARCC each year. In SY15-16, students in public charter schools made a huge leap in overall performance compared to SY14-15, with 4% more students scoring a 4 or 5 on BOTH exams compared to the previous year.

And last year, citywide scores on the ELA and math exam improved by at least 2 percent. While we are glad to see our schools growing, it is important to recognize that we still have work to do to make sure that ALL of our students are ready for college and careers. In the first two years of the PARCC exam, less than 30% of DC public or public charter school students scored a 4 or 5 on either the ELA or Math section of the PARCC test. Last year, in the 2015-16SY, 29 percent of all DC public charter school students and 25 percent of all DCPS students scored a 4 or 5 on their ELA exam. And 26% of all DC public charter school students scored a 4 or 5 on the math exam, compared to 23.9% of all DCPS students.

This year, the city saw a 2% overall increase in Math and a 4% overall increase in ELA. DCPS, in particular, saw a 6% gain in ELA and a 4% increase in Math. This overall growth in DC students' achievement is a moment to cheer as we start a new school year. The steady improvement of DC's public schools - charter and traditional - translates into greater opportunities for our city's young people and builds a stronger future for them, their families, and our communities. But a stronger education system means little if every child can't access it and less than a third of our students are considered college and career ready according to the PARCC. We can't let the good news of citywide improvement take our eyes off the work we still need to do to make a great school a reality for every one of our students, in every part of our city. We have to keep supporting great schools through strong and equitable policy from our city's elected and education leaders.

To find out how your DCPS or DC public charter school performed this year, please visit: osse.dc.gov/parcc and click on the button that says “2016-17 Results & Resources.”

To get information on how your DCPS or DC public charter school performed on PARCC and other measures of progress in prior years, please visit the Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE) website at LearnDC.org and click on your child’s school. For DCPS, please make sure to click on the “DCPS School Profile.” For DC public charter schools, please make sure to click on the “PMF Report Card.” Note: You can also compare schools by clicking “COMPARE” in blue.

PARCC can give families and educators an understanding of where students are based on the expectations of their grade level. The PARCC scores do not impact a student’s GPA or standing in the classroom, but do help educators personalize their lesson planning and provide individual supports to a student.

Results from PARCC also give educators a clear view of which Common Core standards students are struggling with, allowing them to better meet the needs of their students and track their growth. And it is important that schools provide individual score reports to families so that you can also know how your child is doing in meeting the standards required for college and careers. But the results from the PARCC exam are not the only way to measure a student’s performance. Throughout the year, schools should be providing data to parents regularly about how students are performing – using grades, report cards, tests like NWEA Measures of Annual Progress (MAP), and performance-based assessments.

When a student takes the PARCC, they will be given two unique scores on a scale from 1 to 5 for both mathematics and ELA. Scoring a 4 or 5 on the PARCC indicates that the student met or exceeded the expectations of their grade level. This means that that student is on track for their grade’s Common Core standards – putting them on track to succeed in college or a career after graduation.

Scoring a 3 on the exam means that the student approached expectations of their grade level, so has mastered some skills but not all of the skills for their grade level. And a score of a 1 or 2 means that the student either partially met expectations or did not meet the expectations of their grade level.

Results from PARCC will be a central part of how schools are measured on the new city-wide accountability framework that was proposed by the OSSE and approved by the DC State Board of Education earlier this year. The framework will include both how many students are reaching levels 4 and 5 (proficiency) and how students are growing to reach level 4 and 5 (growth). And it will include other measures including re-enrollment (number of students returning year-over-year), attendance (including chronic absenteeism), how well the school serves English-language learners, and providing a well-rounded education.

The next step in the ESSA process will be for DC to create a report card that includes the information from the framework AND also includes other information about schools. The State Board of Education has formed a task force for the report card and PAVE’s Executive Director, Maya Martin, and PAVE Parent Leader, Yolanda Corbett, are both voting members and will be working to get feedback from parents from across the city to learn what parents – like you – want included!

Please visit our website www.dcpave.org for up-to-date information on upcoming events and hearings.

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Do you have events and opportunities to share with the PAVE network? Email us at info@dcpave.org to add events to our August newsletter.

PAVE (Parents Amplifying Voices in Education) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that connects, trains, and empowers charter parent leaders to give families in DC a voice and a choice in the vision for education in our city. The goal of PAVE is to create an education system in DC where parents are partners and leaders in developing a diversity of safe, nurturing, and great school options for every child in every ward and community.