Lower test scores were expected when North Carolina implemented Common Core curriculum last fall.
The new standards, adopted by 46 states nationwide, compel students to connect education to real life, as teachers serve more of a “facilitating” role. Anytime standardized tests are “renormed,” which is having the grading scale be redeveloped, a decline in year-end test scores is not alarming, according to local administrators and instructors.
“This summer, the state will reset the scale for the results,” said Steven Howard, Jones Middle School instructional coach. “Last year, when a kid made (level) 3, we knew where on the scale that would be. We don’t know now without a scale … where the level of proficiency begins.”
Students are grouped on levels one through four to determine their grade-level proficiencies. While test scores may fall, the state will have a way to determine if a child made the expected growth.
Ellen Benton, Lenoir County Schools’ executive director of instruction, said there will be no retest this year, an option that helped students in the past.
“A lot of students passed the retest,” she said. “That second chance has been taken away, so that’s another reason they’ll go down, possibly.”
Howard said once the scores go down, it will give instructors a chance to reflect on what portions of the curriculum need reassessment to raise the marks.
“Anytime there’s a change in curriculum like that, it kind of puts teachers back in perspective of being the student (and) learning something new,” Howard said. “With the roll out of (Common Core standards), it’s been a learning experience not only for the kids, but it’s been a learning experience for the adults as well.”
He assists teachers with resources and clarifying Common Core, which he said digs deeper on specificities of a given instructional topic.
Patrick Miller, Greene County Schools Superintendent, said the standards have made classrooms more rigorous.
“It is raising the expectations for students and teachers alike,” he said. “The one piece that stands out to me is the increase in writing across the curriculum. That’s a good thing.
“That is obviously a skill that is directly related to literacy, so we expect to see hopefully better results in literacy once we get the Common Core fully implemented.”
The new standard was proposed in 2009, entering N.C. classrooms in August. The Department of Public Instruction hired professional development trainers to spend ten total development days with teachers of each content level this year. English, language arts and math teachers have taught the actual Common Core curriculum, while all others must include literacy — reading, writing, spelling and listening — in their instruction.
Common Core focuses on 21st century education for all grades.
Students are wrapping up this year’s testing season, and results won’t be released until October, according to local school districts. There has been benchmark testing throughout the year to keep schools on track.
“The parents know that obviously we’re having new assessments,” Miller said. “In order to ensure validity and reliability, the students’ scores are going to be delayed until late fall. We did send a letter home from the schools explaining that these new assessments will not be used to assign grades or make any kind of placement or retention decisions.”
He said the state has verbally expressed scores could be 20-30 percent lower without formally sending anything in writing. School systems have been given sample letters and parent communication samples throughout the year regarding the Common Core.
The state’s adopted Common Core State Standards were in June 2010 for K-12 math and English Language Arts, and expanded it this year. However, North Carolina legislators have recently introduced a proposal for the state to reexamine the standards. There have been movements against Common Core nationwide, even with website stopcommoncore.org as a result.
Jessika Morgan can be reached at 252-559-1078 or at jessika.morgan@Kinston.com. Follow her on Twitter @JessikaMorgan.
Overall Student Performance 2011-12 by District:
STATE AVERAGE PERCENTAGES:
End-of-Grade (grades 3-8)
Reading: 71.2
Math: 82.8
End-of-Course (high school)
English I: 82.9
Algebra I: 78.7
Biology: 83
Greene County Schools
End-of Grade
Reading: 52.1
Math: 75.3
End-of-Course
English I: 74.4
Algebra I: 74.5
Biology: 69.3
Jones County Schools
End-of-Grade
Reading: 69
Math: 81.8
End-of-Course
English I: 90
Algebra I: 88.1
Biology: 83
Lenoir County Public Schools
End-of-Grade
Reading: 65.2
Math: 78.1
End-of-Course
English I: 76.6
Algebra I: 63.6
Biology: 70.7