Cerf finds a “tremendous” job done by his staff in dismal test scores
Former state testing director, Bari Erlichson, right, now working in Newark, talks about the city’s PARCC scores.
The scores on the latest round of statewide tests–the so-called PARCC tests–were bad everywhere, but Newark’s fell far behind New Jersey’s statewide averages, according to the state-operated school district’s release of the first round of results Tuesday night.
The high school math scores were especially low–something the district attributes to “lower levels of participation.” In her long and often meandering presentation, Newark’s new testing guru Bari Anhalt Ehrlichson–apparently on loan from the state education department (like Cerf)–said everyone will have to wait to determine why lower levels of participation resulted in only five percent of Newark students meeting or exceeding the standards in second-year algebra and geometry.
“We’ll be digging deeper into that,” said Ehrlichson the former state director of testing, who, last spring, presided over New Jersey’s debacle of allowing Pearson, the publisher of the PARCC test, to spy on students on the days they took the exam and fingered children for possible discipline.
Here’s the breakdown. The figure that follows the test is the percentage of students who met or exceeded “expectations,” a new word for standards. First, the Newark score, followed by the state score, followed by the difference:
Third grade math: Newark, 22 percent; State, 45 percent. 23 points.
Fourth grade math: Newark, 17 percent; State, 40 percent. 23 points.
Fifth grade math: NewarkCerf finds a “tremendous” job done by his staff in dismal test scores | Bob Braun's Ledger:
