From Harford County Public Schools:
Harford County Public Schools (HCPS) high school students continue to meet the rigorous standards set forth by the state as evident through a variety of measures and assessments. HCPS students are outperforming the state and nation on the SAT® exam. In addition, HCPS outscored the nation on the Advanced Placement (AP) exams. State data for AP exams has not yet been released.
“Our student performance at the high school level continues to rise on SAT and AP exams. We value and applaud these results, and note that our educators are using multiple assessment measures to evaluate the progress of each individual student,” said HCPS Superintendent of Schools Barbara P. Canavan.
HCPS SAT and AP Results
SAT participation continues to increase concurrently with increased performance. In 2015, 64 percent of graduates participated in the SAT, up from 61 percent of graduates the year prior. All three areas of the SAT saw an increase in the mean scores: critical reading increased from 511 in 2014 to 513 in 2015, writing increased from 486 in 2014 to 492 in 2015, and mathematics increased from 521 in 2014 to 528 in 2015.
With a focus on rigor at every level, Harford County continues to experience the trend in increased participation and performance in AP courses and exams. HCPS had nearly a seven percent increase in AP course enrollment during the 2014-15 school year, with 3,434 students taking at least one AP course last year and a combined course enrollment of 6,347. Last year in Harford County, 3,878 AP exams were administered. Approximately 60 percent of the students taking an AP exam scored a 3, 4, or 5.
HCPS High School PARCC Results
Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) data for high school students in each district across the state was released today on Maryland Report Card. These assessment scores now set a new baseline for data gathered to determine if high school students are on track to graduate ready for college or careers. HCPS students who were enrolled in Algebra I, Algebra II, or English 10 last year participated in the first full implementation of PARCC and scored higher than the State average.
PARCC exams are the first assessments aligned to Maryland’s College and Career Ready Standards, which set a higher bar for student learning. PARCC results cannot be compared with the previously administered High School Assessments (HSA), which the State used for a decade, because this is both a new and different assessment. The assessments go beyond the fill-in-the-blank and multiple-choice models of standardized tests by emphasizing the need for students to demonstrate critical thinking, problem solving, and clear writing.
More than 56 percent of HCPS high school students who participated in the PARCC English 10 assessment are meeting or exceeding the college and career expectations as compared to the state’s average of 40 percent. Nearly 47 percent of HCPS secondary students are meeting or exceeding the Algebra I college and career expectations on the PARCC assessments administered last spring, compared to the state’s average of 31 percent. Twenty-eight percent of HCPS high school students are meeting or exceeding the Algebra II expectations, compared to the state’s average of 20 percent.
PARCC resources for parents and guardians are available on the school system’s website, hcps.org, by clicking the ‘Maryland College & Career-Ready Standards and Common Core’ button on the left-hand side of the homepage. Schools have also posted links to more information on their individual Edline pages. A districtwide call was made to HCPS households last month directing parents/guardians to the online resources.
Elementary and middle school data will be released later in December, along with individual student reports for all students. Further information regarding the individual student reports can be located at www.understandthescore.org.
These year to year comparisons of SAT averages never excite me too much. They always just look like normal kind of randomness to me. The average of the math score changed from 521 to 528. Since individual SAT scores are always a multiple of 10, a 521 average is equivalent to 90% of test takers scoring a 520 and 10% scoring a 530. Similarly, a 528 average is equivalent to 20% scoring a 520 and 80% scoring a 530.
So going from a 521 average to a 528 average is like saying 30% of the test takers made the same score and 70% made a 530 instead of 520. An increase from 520 to 530 can be achieved by answering one more question correctly, or by skipping one question that would otherwise be answered incorrectly. A change in the average from 521 to 528 really indicates no improvement in the achievement of test takers overall.
…if and when the numbers go down, you would have the same disregard due to the same mathematical reasoning, right?
Yes, it goes both ways. I’m talking about year to year comparisons. If there are increases or decreases over three or four years in a row, then something might be going on.
Some questions: What dream team wrote this insulting, sad press release? who thought that if they just ignored the elephant in the room, that it would go away? Who naively thought that we wouldn’t lose respect for the candor and forthrightness of HCPS? and did Ms. Canavan even see it before it went out? That’s not the Barbara C. that I know. I suggest that all the salaries that are being paid to the legal advisors and the spokespersons at HCPS, be given to the teachers or back to the county. Wow!
So let’s spin these disastrous results by calling them a “baseline”? Really? Has our focus on relativism instead of achievement become THAT all-consuming in attempt by the attorneys, ineffective spin-meisters, and bureaucrats to save their own hides. So next year, if, at some schools, only 75% of the kids fail to meet the standards, we’ll be calling it an improvement on the baseline????????? We’re doomed.
Uhhh…it’s a baseline because it’s the first year they used this test, and they will compare next year’s results to this year’s. Without a baseline, you have nothing to compare future results to. Like when they compare a second year NFL quarterback to his rookie year. His rookie year is the baseline. Relativism has nothing to do with it.
To Wow: no kidding! If you think you needed to explain what baseline means, then this debate is beyond your grasp.
Read Mary Ellen’s statement. She was confusing “baseline” with “relativism”. That’s why I explained it. I’m here to help people.
Yeah, this is a sorry summary of county test results, but I suppose the goal was say something about everything but nothing much about anything to try to avoid any questions.
Here’s what I find by looking at the HarCo PARCC data residing on the Maryland Dept of Ed website.
Yes, HarCo Secondary school results for Algebra I show 47% meeting or exceeding the standards; however, when you consider just the results for HarCo high schools, you will see that only ~24% (I added 3% exceeded on my own because Maryland won’t reveal the number if less than 5%; the data was 21% met and less than 5% exceeded) of the Algebra I students met or exceeded the standards. So 3 out of every 4 HarCo high school students who took the Algebra I assessment don’t know Algebra I.
The middle school students who took the Algebra I PARCC in HarCo did much better than the high school students with about 70% of the middle school students meeting or exceeding the standards.
Why is this? The MS students taking Algebra I are probably the better math students in their schools and the HS students taking it are probably not at the top of their schools in math achievement. Even so, a 24% rate is pretty lousy.
Considering the test didn’t count how could it measure anything?
What is absolute crap is that harford county teacher are tying to indoctrinate our kids with their personal liberal ideology. My son is a 5th grader at Youth Benefit and they are being “taught” global waming. I have no problem with the school teaching my son about global warming but i have a major issue with the teacher stating that quote “any child that refutes the existane of global warming will be taken to the principle’s office.”
My question to you harford county is why do you NOT ALLOW educated discussions and differing opinions to unproven science? Why does my son have “go along to get along” with your uneducated left-wing teachers OPINION or risk a failing grade or be sent to the principle’s office for questioning your so-called teacher?
I am ashamed that the teachers in my sons school push their opinions and do not allow for honest and open debate, is that not what education is about.
It has been documaented that many global climatologists have admitted to fudging warming trend numbers to keep dollars flowing to fund their work and to push the liberal agenda. The global warming fraud is a $4 billion dollar a day fraud that has been dumped on the the people in order to fund green programs and take more of your money.
John Coleman, who co-founded the Weather Channel, shocked academics by insisting the theory of man-made climate change was no longer scientifically credible.
Instead, what ‘little evidence’ there is for rising global temperatures points to a ‘natural phenomenon’ within a developing eco-system.
It is very sad that this topic cannot even be discussed in a classroom and has to be taken as certified fact according to the teachers at youth benefit.
Did you take your complaint to the Principal?
Taken to the principals office? And then, what? Call their bluff.
When I was a student many, many years ago, I called a teachers bluff in a similar situation. When I was led out of the classroom, and went to the “office.” “Ooooohhhh!!!” Nothing happened.
Yep, thinking about it now the socially awkward situation the Principal was in stumbling over words, weird body language, he was not comfortable or had enough wits to come up with a reason to further “detain” me on the spot. I’m sure that teacher got a “talking” to after the day was done.
The bad thing was that the Principal just tows the line instead of “well, this is ridiculous, go back to class.”