The Public Affairs Research Council of Alabama (PARCA) was developed to provide objective, nonpartisan information that will lead to
the improvement of state and local government in Alabama.
PARCA believes that schools that are making progress use data to
understand where they are, to know what their challenges are, and to monitor
gains in student achievement. PARCA and many others deem that much
of that data is derived from statewide tests of reading and math competence.
These tests serve a valuable purpose in assessing the quality of teaching and
learning in public schools.
PARCA has been collecting and analyzing test score data for the
Alabama Reading and Math Test (ARMT) since 2005. They have just released our 2012 ARMT Test Score
Comparisons for
every school system in Alabama. These
annual assessments are important to the goal of raising academic skills throughout
the state. They provide information that students, parents, teachers, policy
makers, and taxpayers can use to evaluate progress and direct improvement
efforts where results are below expectation.
In analyzing the data PARCA found that one of the most difficult
challenges facing education in Alabama is improving the education of students
in poverty level families. This student subgroup has been low-performing on the
ARMT. Nevertheless, the state is making improvements in this area. Gains have
ranged from 6 to 16 percent in Reading and 9 and 31 percent in Math. The
largest increase in the ARMT for Poverty Students was in Math for 5th Grade.
For more trends, by system and by school, click here.
Crenshaw County is also
making student achievement gains per subgroups.
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| Green cells denote positive change and red cells denote negative change. |
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| Green cells denote positive change and red cells denote negative change. |
