OLYMPIA — Students and their parents can expect to learn how they did on the state’s new standardized test next month, but initial results show that several Snohomish County school districts exceeded statewide success rates while others struggled to keep up.
State Superintendent of Public Instruction Randy Dorn on Monday morning released results from the first official round of Common Core testing for math and English. The state piloted the new Smarter Balanced Assessment with about a third of Washington students in 2014, then rolled out the test for all students this year.
Statewide, more than half of students in third through eighth grade met the threshold to be considered “on track for college and career readiness” in English, according to Dorn’s office. That means they landed in the three or four range of the test results, which break scores down on a scale of one to four. In math, slightly less than half of students in most grades scored a three or a four.
In Snohomish County, the Everett and Lake Stevens school districts exceeded statewide success rates for the English and math tests at all grade levels. At least six out of 10 students in grades 3 to 8 scored a three or higher in English, and more than half of them scored a three or higher in math.
The Edmonds and Arlington school districts also surpassed state averages for English but struggled a bit in math. Stanwood-Camano students, on the other hand, excelled in math rather than English.
Marysville, Granite Falls, Sultan and Darrington schools fell below state proficiency rates at most grade levels for English and math. Lakewood and Mukilteo students were below the state average for the rate of students scoring well in English but varied by grade level in math. Monroe and Snohomish students fell below the math average and varied by grade level in English.
Catherine Matthews, director of assessment at Everett Public Schools, was happy with Everett students’ test performance. The district spent 18 months training educators and families on the new test format and making sure the Google Chromebooks used for testing and schools’ wireless Internet systems were up to par.
As for processing test results, this year isn’t any different than past years, Matthews said. She and her staff plan to review the results and figure out where students did well and where they need help.
“That work is just beginning,” she said.
In Lake Stevens, Gina Anderson works with teachers and administrators throughout the year to review results not only from state tests but from classroom projects and exams. Anderson, the executive director of assessment and student learning, expected Lake Stevens students to outperform the state average but was surprised by how well they did. Students and parents should be able to check online in September to see if they scored in the 1, 2, 3 or 4 range of the test. Detailed individual scores are expected to be given to families soon after.
The Marysville School District struggled to meet state testing standards this spring. That’s not a surprise to district leaders, assistant superintendent Ray Houser said. An internal audit last fall found that the district’s curriculum, teaching methods and testing expectations did not line up, he said.
“Our focus over the next few years is working with the standards and making sure that those pieces are aligned,” he said.
That means revamping the curriculum and reviewing student-teacher interactions in the classroom.
“We’ve taken steps to correct things, but it’s going to take time,” Houser said.
State officials repeatedly have urged parents, students and educators not to compare students’ scores on the Smarter Balanced test to scores on past exams. The new test is more rigorous and this was the first year students across the state were required to take it.
“I want you to know that this transition period was not easy,” state Superintendent Dorn said.
Overall, the test results “far exceeded what I thought we would do,” he said.
High school sophomores took the English test as a graduation requirement, and 80 percent of them met the minimum score set by the State Board of Education. The 10th grade graduation threshold is lower than the standard for college and career preparation.
The percentage of high school juniors who passed the tests are much lower. Roughly 26 percent scored a three or four in English, and only 14 percent did so in math. State officials credit the low scores to the high number of 11th graders who refused to take the tests. It was not a graduation requirement for them.
“When you factor in that we had to put in zeros for students who refused, that does skew our data,” Gil Mendoza, deputy superintendent of K-12 education, said.
When students who refused to take the test are removed from the data, the passing rates double: roughly 52 percent of 11th graders who took the English test and 29 percent of those who took the math test scored a three or higher.
Mendoza doesn’t expect to see many juniors opting out next year.
“This was an anomaly,” he said. “We expect every student to take it (next year) that didn’t take it.”
The low turnout of 11th graders could cost the state some federal funds, Dorn said.
Washington obtained a waiver from some requirements of the federal No Child Left Behind law because this is the first year the state has used the Smarter Balanced Assessment. However, as a condition of the waiver, statewide participation had to be at least 95 percent. The high refusal rate of 11th graders pulled Washington’s total below that mark.
“We expect there will be some ramifications from the U.S. Department of Education,” Dorn said. It’s unclear what those will be.
Herald reporter Jerry Cornfield contributed to this report.
Kari Bray: 425-339-3439; kbray@heraldnet.com
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