District gets results for Common Core testing
Newport-Mesa Unified School District students’ combined performance on new online state standardized tests in math and English/language arts show that approximately half of them either met or exceeded the exams’ standard.
Last spring, public school students in grades third through eighth and 11th, took exams that measured their abilities to analyze problems, think independently and write clearly using evidence, referred to as Common Core.
The California Department of Education released the results from the new online tests Wednesday.
Education officials consider these exams, called the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress, more rigorous than the previous Standardized Testing and Reporting program, called STAR.
In Newport-Mesa, 54% of students who took the test met or exceeded state standards in English. Among that same pool, 47% of them met or exceeded state standards in math.
Among the Orange County school districts that met test standards, Newport-Mesa ranked 14th.
“This is an opportunity and a foundation for growth,” district board President Martha Fluor said. “We beat the state average and we’ll keep working to improve. I’m very pleased and I feel confident that we will grow from here.”
Statewide in all grades, 44% of students met or exceeded the English language arts/literacy standard and 33% met or exceeded the mathematics standard.
Students who tested within the Irvine Unified School District had the top scores with 77% who met or exceeded state standards in English and 74% in math.
Because 2015 is the first year of the new tests and because they are substantially different from their predecessors, the results are a baseline that will measure future progress and should not be compared to results from the state’s previous assessments, according to the state education department’s website https://caaspp.cde.ca.gov.
Tests consisted of two parts.
The first part was an adaptive test taken on a computer that gave different follow-up questions based on a student’s answers, providing a more refined picture of the person’s abilities. The second section challenged students to apply their knowledge and skills to real-world problems. The two parts measure depth of understanding, writing, research, and problem-solving skills.
In contrast, STAR was a multiple-choice, paper-based test in which students filled in bubbles on paper and could more easily guess correct answers.
On CAASPP, students’ scores fall into one of four achievement levels: standard exceeded, standard met, standard nearly met, and standard not met.
Individual student score reports will be mailed to parents by the end of September or early October. The score reports contain an overall score for each subject as well as information about performance in different skill areas associated with English language arts/literacy and math.