Arizona students performed slightly better on a statewide standardized test in the 2015-2016 school year, but more than half still failed, new results show.
Preliminary, state-level AzMERIT test results showing proficiency levels for math and English-language arts in grades three through eight and high school-level math for the 2015-2016 school year were released Monday by the Arizona Department of Education.
βI think we saw, in general, an improvement across most of the subjects and grade levels, which is a positive thing,β said Charles Tack, a department spokesman.
AzMERIT replaced Arizonaβs Instrument to Measure Standards, or AIMS, as the statewide achievement test. The state partnered with the American Institutes for Research to develop the test.
The categories for proficiency are highly proficient, proficient, partially proficient and minimally proficient.
Final results, which would include data for individual schools, districts and charter schools, will be made available in late August. They would also include demographic breakdowns, such as students with disabilities or English-language-learner status.
Some findings in the results released Monday compared with the 2014-15 school year include:
- More than half of 10th- and 11th-graders in Arizona were minimally proficient in English-language arts. Generally, ninth-, 10th- and 11th-graders fared worse in ELA this year.
- More than half of eighth-graders were minimally proficient in math. The percentage of eighth-graders who are highly proficient in math went from 14 percent last year to 9 percent. That could be attributed to eighth-graders who are taking high-school-level math courses no longer having to take the eighth-grade math test for AzMERIT.
- Third-graders improved slightly in English-language arts (reading and writing), though the percentage of minimally proficient students rose. The education departmentβs Tack said thatβs because a large number of students who were in a special category for having limited English proficiency moved up into the minimally proficient category.
- Some of the biggest increases were seen in fourth- and fifth-grade English. The percentage of fourth-graders highly proficient in English went from 6 to 12 percent, while the percentage for fifth-graders went from 4 to 13 percent.
- Third- through fifth-graders had some of the highest passing rates for both English and math. They had an average proficiency level of 44 percent for both subjects.
Last yearβs AzMERIT results were a βbit of a wake-up callβ to the department, Tack said. The scores were very low, and many students were failing.
As the state transitioned into the new testing platform, educators expected to see big drops compared to AIMS scores, he said. The scores are still low, and there is a long way to go, but he said the education department sees the slight overall increases in the scores as a positive sign.
The scores will not be factored into schoolsβ letter grades, Tack said. The state is in its second year of a two-year moratorium on releasing letter grades as the education system adjusts to the new test.
Expect More Arizona, a state education advocacy organization, attributed the slight gains in test scores to the βhard work of Arizonaβs teachers and students.β
βWe werenβt really expecting a huge jump to happen,β said Selena Llamas, a Southern Arizona mobilization and outreach coordinator for the organization. βI would say because this is a relatively new test and students really need to gain more practice with the key skills.β
AzMERIT challenges students to show their work and how they got their answers, she said.
βStudents really need to become familiar with the AzMERIT test format,β she said. βWhen that happens, scores will increase over time.β
