Juneau students performed second best among the state’s five biggest school districts in Alaska’s new standardized test. Alaska Measures of Progress evaluates third through 10th grade students on math and English language arts.
About 40 percent of Juneau students that were tested meet the standards, while roughly 60 percent partially meet the standards. That’s better than how the state did as a whole. Sixth grade math is the only area where Juneau students fell behind state averages, according to the superintendent.
The test was administered this past April. It’s based on state standards revised in 2012 and replaces a test based on 2006 standards.
Phil Loseby, assessment evaluation coordinator for the Juneau School District, said the new standards are more rigorous.
“Alaska is not a Common Core state, but roughly 90 percent or more of our state standards align either very closely or exactly with the national Common Core,” Loseby said.
Old standards wanted fourth graders to know their multiplication tables. New standards have that expectation and more of third graders.
Students are scored on four levels. Students who score on the 1 or 2 level only partially meet the standards, while students who score on the 3 or 4 level meet the standards.
“The ‘meet’ and ‘partially meet,’ it’s really you meet the standard or you’re below the standard,” Loseby said.
Of all Juneau schools, Auke Bay Elementary had the top English scores with close to 55 percent of its students meeting the standards. Gastineau Elementary topped the district in math scores with close to 50 percent meeting standards.
Loseby says the test provides only one measure of assessment and shouldn’t be used in isolation. The district also administers the nationally-normed Measures of Academic Progress test three times a year. He says that assessment allows parents and teachers to track performance throughout the year and helps identify instructional targets.
The new Alaska Measures of Progress test has critics that include many superintendents, and a state lawmaker is drafting a bill to repeal it.
Juneau superintendent Mark Miller said the district is still trying to figure out what the test means.
“The test itself has some quirks and some flaws that we’re going to be working with the state around to figure out what exactly it means. It’s not very good to help us inform instruction. It doesn’t help us get much better at what we do,” Miller said.
Individual student scores will be sent out around Thanksgiving.
