Common Core

Maryland DOE To Release First PARCC Results In October. The Washington Post (9/24, George) reports that Maryland education officials will begin releasing the first iteration of PARCC test results in October, with the final cohort of results to be released in December. State officials said that “individual student scores will be sent home to families in the weeks following the two state releases.” The Post notes that since this is the first year for establishing a baseline, “scores are not tied to school or teacher accountability in Maryland.” Review: California Achievement Gap Spreads With SBAC Testing. The Sacramento (CA) Bee (9/24) reports that according to its review of state data, despite long-running efforts to close the income-based achievement gap in California, “the divide grew much wider under the state’s new” SBAC testing regimen, noting that some while 53% of middle- to high-income students scored proficient on the tests, that number fell to 21% for “economically disadvantaged students in California.” In past years, 1.5 times more wealthier students scored proficient than did their disadvantaged peers, while this figure grew to 2.5 times more this year. Oregon Scores Add Fuel To SBAC Debate. The Portland (OR) Tribune (9/24) reports that the Oregon Department of Education has released the results of this year’s Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium tests, and “people across the education debate spectrum readied their storyline.” The state DOE stressed that students exceeded projections based on field testing, and individual districts that scored well “crowed” about local results. Meanwhile, SBAC opponents “took to the blogosphere to warn against the ‘better-than-expected’ news storylines.”