District 99 has received the results from the PARCC (Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers) assessments, the new standardized tests mandated by the state. The results indicate that 42% of the students tested in District 99 “met” or “exceeded” expectations set forth by PARCC, which includes both an English Language Arts and mathematics section. Statewide, 32.9% of students met or exceeded expectations.
District 99 administered the PARCC for the first time in the spring of 2015. Primarily freshmen students enrolled in English 1 and Math 1 courses, which are aligned to the new state standards, were tested. Of the 5,015 total number of students in the district, over 1,100 students took the English Language Arts assessments and over 750 students took the mathematics assessments. Students not enrolled in Math 1, including all those students enrolled in advanced level math courses, did not participate.
In addition to the overall PARCC score:
- 46.2% of D99 students tested met or exceeded the PARCC standards in English Language Arts (compared to 34.7% of students statewide).
- 36.3% of D99 students tested met or exceeded the PARCC standards in mathematics (compared to 16.7% of students statewide).
“These new PARCC results, which clearly reflect the rigor of the new Illinois state standards, provide us with valuable baseline data for future assessments,” says Gina Ziccardi, assistant superintendent for student learning at District 99. “Our students are excelling so many ways academically, and we will use multiple measures to determine their overall readiness for the future.”
District 99 will continue to rely on more established measurements and assessments, such as Advanced Placement participation and scores, ACT scores, teacher assessments and student grades, as indicators of student performance and preparedness.
District 99 will mail individual results to the students who participated in the PARCC within the next two weeks.
Details about the PARCC results and other measures are contained in the 2015 Illinois Report Cards: