From Harford County Public Schools:
Harford County Public Schools (HCPS) students continue to meet the rigorous standards set forth by the state as evident through a variety of measures and assessments.
“We are pleased with our SAT®, Advanced Placement (AP) and Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) results this year,” said HCPS Superintendent of Schools Barbara P. Canavan. “Our staff work tirelessly to support the implementation of multiple assessment measures to evaluate the academic progress of each individual student. I am proud that our students continue to rise to the increasingly high expectations and standards that have been established to prepare them to be college and career ready.”
HCPS SAT and AP Results
In 2016, 58.2 percent of graduates participated in the SAT, as of the January 2016 administration. The new SAT administration began in March 2016, so students who participated after January 2016 are not reflected in this year’s data. HCPS students are outperforming the state and nation on the SAT exam: the HCPS critical reading mean score was 511, compared to 490 for the state and 494 for the nation; HCPS mathematics mean score was 528, compared to 490 for the state and 508 for the nation; and the HCPS writing mean score was 482, compared to 476 for the state and 482 for the nation.
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. During the 2015-16 school year, 3,495 students took at least one AP course, with a combined course enrollment of 6,484, and 3,919 AP exams were administered. Approximately 60.4 percent of the students taking an AP exam scored a 3, 4, or 5.
HCPS PARCC Results
PARCC data for all students in each district across the state was released today on Maryland Report Card.
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.
PARCC assessments are scored by five performance levels, where a performance level of 4 indicates that the student met the expectations. A performance level of 5 indicates that the student exceeded the expectations.
During the 2015-16 school year, middle school students enrolled in Algebra I participated in the PARCC Algebra I assessment and middle school students enrolled in Geometry participated in the PARCC Geometry assessment. Mathematics PARCC results for the 2015-16 school year for grades 7 and 8 cannot be compared with prior year’s results due to the Geometry assessment being administered for the first time last year.
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 PARCC’ button on the left-hand side of the homepage.
Individual student reports will be released October 14, 2016. Further information regarding the individual student reports can be located at www.understandthescore.org.
The amount of kids taking AP courses being an important stat is such a load of crap. First, kids being pushed into AP is a money-making racket (for who, I don’t know–but I know SOMEONE is making millions off of this). Advanced Placement is a trademarked product of CollegeBoard, so when schools push kids into AP and then take the AP test, CollegeBoard makes $$$$. I have to think the schools get a kick back, as well. (Same goes for the SAT and PSAT).
Second, some high schools have gotten rid of honors English in 11th grade and 12th grade in order to push kids into AP. So, the kids who don’t want to take AP are stuck taking a CC class (classes with two teachers, one gen Ed and one special Ed). It’s all about the numbers game. The more kids you can push into AP, the better your school looks. It’s not about what’s best for the kids anymore…AT ALL. It’s about padding stats for principals.
And who do the principals answer to? Who puts the demands on them?
The money makers in all of this is the College Board. A few years ago, in the middle of the recession, they paid their executives six figure BONUSES. Not salaries…BONUSES. This happened around the same time the governor sponsored an “education summit”, where, with the assistance of the chancellor of the higher education system of Maryland, they decided that the key to boosting student achievement and college readiness in high school students was greater participation in AP courses, and taking the tests to get college credit. The chancellor of the higher education system of Maryland was also chairman of the advisory board of a company. Care to take a wild guess as to what company he was advising? The COLLEGE BOARD! The U.S. News and World Report annual rankings of high schools in the US is based on…guess what? The number of students the school has taking and passing AP courses! And you can bet that the higher-ups of HCPS certainly want their schools way up on that list, even if it means making some executives and a chancellor/advisor very, very wealthy.
So may be the principals are pushing AP, but you can be assured that there is plenty of “incentive” to do so.
Thank you for that info! I knew there was more to it…but I didn’t know all that. It all makes sense…
Our kids (one in Harford Tech/one in Ring Factory Elementary) are very happy in the Harford County school system. They are learning alot, like their teachers, and come home enthusiastic about what they learned every day. I’m sorry to read that some number of parents have nothing but complaints about the system. Our family experience is quite the opposite.
I don’t understand how no one is covering this, so I’m putting it out here.
The new math curriculum at Harford county is using a company named Pearson. To do the math homework you have to download an App and scan the homework each night. The maker’s of the app/text book straight out say on their website that they are datamining and selling the information to third parties who will remain unnamed about the children, including names, and address, and age. You have to agree to their terms and allow the datamining to be able to do the homework assignments. How is this OK?
Who agreed that to this deal?
If this is true, then some serious privacy issues are at risk here. Especially those of minor children. Furthermore, what if you didn’t have or want a computer in your home? Children wouldn’t be able to do their homework. Are you sure there isn’t an option to opt out of the data mining?
There is no opt out other than to refusing to use the App (which we are doing). You have to accept the terms of agreement to scan the homework. Which then means Pearson along with your child’s personal information also knows how your child is performing in school.
What grade is this for? I have 2 in Elementary, one in High School and have not seen this.
My daughter is in grade 5, they are using Pearson Envision 2.0 books. They had a big presentation about it on back to school night. We were shown a video presentation on how to download the App. I went to the Pearson website and read the terms of agreement for the App. I understand that most people don’t read privacy statements, but I do. It states on their website:
“Pearson may collect certain types of personally-identifying information from Users through this Service. We consider the following to be examples of personally-identifying information: they include, but are not limited to, your first and last name, email address, home address, phone number, date of birth, social security number, credit card information and certain other information, to the extent it is linked with your personally-identifying information.” Later on there are many paragraphs about third party usage of data.
I don’t like the fact that you have use an App on a smartphone to have a child complete or get help with homework. I’ve looked through the Pearson text book and I’m not impressed. So far my child has been able to complete her assignments without the App, but we’re only a few weeks into the school year.
Why would they have social security numbers? I thought everyone was taught to NOT give out your social security number for any reason……
I agree with you on that. I may be one of the last in the universe, but I have only a simple android phone, and not a single app on it. I have lived my entire life without apps, I don’t plan on starting to use them anytime soon.
What about those parents that don’t have smart phones? Since school has started my fourth grade granddaughter has been working on mental math, estimating the answers to problems like: 320 X 4 = 1200. No it doesn’t, it will never equal that. Instead of teaching the basic formulas for multiplication and simple division, this Common Core method is being taught. Common Core is dumbing down our students., We have given up control over Maryland’s public schools to the federal government by adopting the Common Core Standards, that scares me and should scare every parent.
are you sure it is an equal sign in the book and not an approxamitely equal sign? Estimation is not new. I did it 30 years ago.
Because they were teaching them how to estimate. Most people can’t compute large numbers in their head and quickly come up with the exact answer, but there are methods to teach them how to estimate, which is definitely a valuable skill.
If you are trying to decide if you can afford a trip to Aruba with your wife and two kids, and the price is $2768 per person, do you really need to know the exact cost, and could you compute that quickly in your head before you decide if you can afford it? Or is it sufficient to multiply 27×4 in your head, and know that it will cost you around $10,800, or even then rounding and saying “the trip will cost around 11k”?
In daily living, most people probably estimate considerably more than they work with exact numbers.
It’s not Common Core!!! It’s the curriculum being used by the county.
This is not Common Core, people. That does not mandate this. This is the curriculum Harford County is using.
The new elementary math curriculum was chosen by teachers and administrators. It was NEVER piloted in any schools. The cost was less than other programs. Pearson also produces the PARCC so the hope was that it would be a better correlation. So far, teachers are not impressed. Students that were typically good or great math students are not performing well. Parents are frustrated and kids are crying . Wonderful choice HCPS. Will we ever get a good math program in this county? We need a new supervisor of math NOW.