Scroll down to see test scores from just the public schools in Orleans Parish, by grade level.
The state released today the first school-level scores from the new test intended to measure Common Core concepts.
Fourteen schools out of 63 in New Orleans had a majority of third- through eighth- grade students earn acceptable scores on the new PARCC test, according to data released by the Louisiana Department of Education.
District level results are here.
The Lens analyzed English and math test data by school to determine schools where at least half of students in every grade earned a score of ‘basic’ or above. That’s the middle of five levels of achievement, ranging from “unsatisfactory” to “advanced.” This was the first year, and possibly the last, that students took a test devised by the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers.
Students in 10 other states also took the exam, and the ability to compare scores across state lines was a big selling point. However, few of the other states have yet to release scores.
In a bruising fight with Common Core opponents in the state Legislature this year, state schools Superintendent John White eventually reached a compromise, where he agreed that the state won’t use this precise test next year. The deal calls for next year’s exam to use no more than half of the questions from PARCC, but White will likely seek to replicate questions that can be compared.
In Louisiana, the score of basic has been the standard for years. But the state Department of Education is planning to elevate the acceptable level to a score of ‘mastery,’ or fourth out of the five levels as part of its plan to raise standards.
Only 63 public schools in New Orleans had students who took the new PARCC tests. There are about 80 public schools, but some do not enroll any students in third through eighth grades, such as some high schools.
A majority of the 14 schools where most students reached basic, are under the Orleans Parish School Board: Audubon Charter School; Mary Bethune Elementary; Alice Harte Charter School; Edward Hynes Charter School; Lusher Charter School, Mahalia Jackson Elementary; Robert Russa Moton Charter School; Lake Forest Elementary School.
Two, International School of Louisiana and Lycee Francais de la Nouvelle Orleans, are overseen directly by the state. The remaining four are Recovery School District charters: Renew SciTech Academy, KIPP Central City Primary, KIPP Central City Academy, Morris Jeff Community School.
Several schools came close to hitting the mark, missing The Lens’ 50 percent cut-off in only one or two grades.
Students also took a version of the LEAP test for science and social studies, but those tests were not devised by PARCC. The Lens’ analysis only looked at the English and math scores.
