How Many South Brunswick Students Opted Out of PARCC?

South Brunswick, NJ - 519.

Out of 714 students in the South Brunswick High senior class, that’s how many students did not take the 11th grade Language Arts PARCC test last year.

That’s 72% of the class, NJ Spotlight found.

A mere 195 11th graders took the exam last year, but that number was so low it skewed South Brunswick’s averages below state and national levels in both reading and writing, district officials said.

Similarly, 288 11th graders did not take the Algebra II PARCC test. 416 students took the exam.

This is according to PARCC testing data the state Department of Education released Feb. 2. Some students may have been absent the day of the test, or had a medical emergency. Other 11th graders may not have been qualified to take the Algebra II exam, a DOE spokesman said, so they were not included. (704 11th graders were eligible to take Algebra II.)

But those numbers also include students who refused to take the controversial PARCC test, and students whose parents refused to have their child take the exam.

Those who opted out of PARCC must now take another test

Now, the South Brunswick school district is left with a problem: Those students who did not take PARCC lack a “pathway to graduation,” Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum Joanne Kerekes said at a Board of Education meeting on Monday, according to TAP Into.

While some of those students have other ways to graduate, “a significant number” of students will now likely have to take either the ASVAB or an Accuplacer test, school officials said. Those tests are normally given to community college students to test their proficiency in math and language arts.

The district will administer those “alternative” tests sometime in the next few weeks, Kerekes said.

At the Monday meeting, Schools Superintendent Dr. Jerry Jellig said the cost of students not taking PARCC is “extraordinary,” adding that the district now has to pay additional costs to administer ASVAB/Accuplacer.

“The cost of ‘opting out’ is not small,” Jellig said, according to TAP Into.

Nearly 50,000 students statewide said no to PARCC

South Brunswick students are part of 49,000 students total across New Jersey who refused to take the PARCC tests last year.