By Matthew Sockol
Correspondent
SAYREVILLE – Students in Sayreville have a reason to be proud.
The reason being is that they scored well according to the recent unveiling of the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) exam results in New Jersey.
The state results from spring 2015 were released on Feb. 2 by the Department of Education, with students being scored on a one-to-five scale. A one is classified as not yet meeting state requirements, two is partially meeting requirements, three is approaching state expectations, four is meeting expectations and five is exceeding expectations. Only the scores of four and five are considered passing rates. The Department of Education found that most students in New Jersey scored a three.
In the Sayreville Public Schools district, however, students in grades 3-11 did exceptionally well in the language arts exams. Each grade level, which has its own exam, saw the highest percentage of students receive a score of four.
According to the results, 58.4 percent of third graders in the Dwight D. Eisenhower Elementary School, 46 percent of third graders in the Emma Arleth Elementary School, 55.9 percent of third graders in the Harry S. Truman Elementary School and 45.9 percent of third graders in the Woodrow Wilson Elementary School met or exceeded state expectations, giving the district an average passing rate of 52.3 percent for third graders.
At Samsel Upper Elementary School, 64.3 percent of fourth graders and 50.7 percent of fifth graders achieved a four or higher.
At Sayreville Middle School, 48.9 percent of sixth graders, 55.2 percent of seventh graders and 45 percent of eight graders scored a four or higher.
For Sayreville War Memorial High School, 49.3 percent of ninth graders, 45.8 percent of 10th graders and 42 percent of 11th graders received a four or higher.
Prior to the official release of the results, Dr. Marilyn Shediack, the assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction, presented the district’s PARCC scores at the Sayreville Board of Education’s Dec. 15 meeting.
Shediack provided a graph that compared the passing rates in the district to the state and national averages. Nearly all of the grade levels that took the exam had a higher passing rate than the state average and they were all higher than the national rate.
“In all cases, with the exception of grade eight, we exceeded state and national passing rates,” Shediack said.
However, students in the district were less successful with the math exams. As with the language art exams, students in grades 3-8 receive a test intended for their year of study. The exams taken by high school students are based on their enrollment in Algebra I, geometry or Algebra II instead of the grade they are in. The Algebra I exam is also taken by eighth grade students enrolled in the class who do not take the eighth grade exam.
The average passing rate in third grade was 48.9 percent, with 49.6 percent of Dwight D. Eisenhower students, 47.6 percent of Emma Arleth students, 51.9 percent of Harry S. Truman students and 46 percent of Woodrow Wilson students receiving a four or higher. In the upper elementary school, 50.8 percent of fourth graders and 44.1 percent of fifth graders passed the exam.
In the middle school, 37.1 percent of sixth graders, 43.4 percent of seventh graders and 21.2 percent of eight grades met or exceeded state expectations.
Only the seventh grade had a higher passing rate than the state and the nation. The sixth grade passing rate was above only the national average and the eighth grade passing rate was below both averages.
“We did very well in grades three, four and five,” Shediack said. “We were below the state average in grade six, but we went back up in grade seven. Grade eight, we were lower than the state average.”
In the high school, 12.9 percent of Algebra I students, 19.9 percent of geometry students and 12.8 percent of Algebra II students met or exceeded state expectations. The passing rate of Algebra I students in eighth grade was 81.3 percent, making the average passing rate 31.4 percent. According to Shediack, all were below the state averages.
Despite difficulties in the math exams, the district nevertheless saw all but one grade level score above the state and national average in language arts, a feat also achieved by four of the grade levels in math.
Overall, the Sayreville students obtained a higher passing rate than the state and nation in 12 of the 18 exams taken.