SFPS Shows Sustainable Growth in 2018 PARCC Scores

By SFPS

On Wednesday, July 12, 2018, the New Mexico Public Education Department (NMPED) released the spring 2018 results of the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC).

This year, Santa Fe Public Schools (SFPS) increased the percentage of students who met or exceeded expectations in both English Language Arts, with a .7 percentage point increase, and math, with a 1.1 percentage point increase.

According to the 2018 PARCC assessment, 29% of our students met or exceeded expectations in English Language Arts and 17.6% of our students met or exceeded expectations in math. Additionally, some schools saw increases of more than 10 percentage points and for the second year in a row our high school students saw sustainable growth in English Language Arts with a growth of 5.2 percentage points in 2017 and 2.5 percentage points in 2018.

Dr. Veronica C. Garcia, superintendent of schools, stated, “It pleases me that we have made gains in both English Language Arts and math. The sustainable growth for the second year in a row in English Language Arts is a product of the hard work of our staff, and I am confident that we will continue to improve in math by improving our teaching practices, leveraging community partnerships, and tutoring opportunities. By providing our educators the supports that will foster student success, I’m sure we will see continued growth in this area.”

The following schools increased the percentage of students who met or exceeded expectations in both English Language Arts and math:

Dr. Garcia added, “I commend the work of our educators, families, students and community partners that led to these improvements. While we saw improvements this year, it does concern me that we still have a large number of students who are not considered college and career ready according to the PARCC assessment. In fact, statewide almost 80% of our children are not considered to be college and career ready in math and almost 70% of our children are not considered to be college and career ready in English Language Arts. This is a startling trend that must be reversed statewide if it truly is a reflection of our students’ readiness for college and career. However, the inordinate number of students identified as not ready for college and career on the PARCC assessment statewide may possibly represent a disconnect between the PARCC assessment and actual college and career readiness.”

For more information about the PARCC assessment as well as resources for parents, please visit http://newmexicocommoncore.org/parents.