How Berkeley, Central Regional Fared On The PARCC 2019 Test

BERKELEY, NJ — The results are in. Here's how Berkeley and Central Regional district students performed on the 2019 PARCC test.

Patch put together the lists of districts, including percentages of students who met or didn't meet expectations, as well as the mean score in each category. High school math was broken into Algebra I, Geometry and Algebra II.

Levels four and five are considered meeting or exceeding expectations, while "Level 1" means they didn't. Just like the past PARCC tests, students met expectations if they performed in the "Level 4" and "Level 5" areas, which is between the scores of 750 and 850, the latter being a perfect score.

Here are the lists of where students fell into each category. Lists are divided into test and grade level, along with the percentages of students who met expectations and mean test score:

BERKELEY

3rd grade math: 39.5, 743

4th grade math: 42.9, 742

5th grade math: 23.9, 734

6th grade math: 34.8, 738

3rd grade English: 44.3, 742

4th grade English: 52.7, 751

5th grade English: 47.5, 744

6th grade English: 54.1, 752

CENTRAL REGIONAL

Algebra I: 32.9, 737

Geometry: 28.9, 733

Algebra II: 60, 758

7th grade math: 36.6, 740

8th grade math: 22, 740

7th grade English: 39.5, 736

8th grade English: 41.2, 738

9th grade English: 31.8, 733

10th grade English: 30.4, 726

State Averages

For perspective, here was the percentage of New Jersey students who met expectations:

Grades 3-8, all tests: 50 percent

9th grade English: 56

10th grade English: 59

Algebra 1: 43

Geometry: 32

Algebra II: 56

See more statewide data.

Scores Don't Tell The Whole Story

PARCC tests have been a source of controversy for years, and Gov. Phil Murphy has talked for two years about finding replacements for the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers test.

The New Jersey Student Learning Assessment (NJSLA) uses the same computer-based platform used for PARCC and draws on the same bank of test questions. Indeed, the NJSLA results in English and math are comparable to the previous years' PARCC results.

However, the biggest difference between this assessment and PARCC is that it's now about 25 percent shorter and the number of questions has been reduced.

To see the full list of all New Jersey schools and how they scored click here.

Standardized tests, in general, are a controversial way to measure the success of a student or school. FairTest, an educational organization that addresses issues related to student test taking, has criticized using test scores as a primary factor for a school's accountability.

The group says standardized testing influences schools to narrow their curriculum and "teach to the test," while also undermining student engagement.

With reporting from Tom Davis/Patch

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