Harford County Public Schools students' scores on some state and national standardized tests dropped slightly last school year, but they remain above the state and national averages for students at all grade levels.
"We are pleased with our SAT, Advanced Placement and Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) results this year," Harford Schools Superintendent Barbara Canavan said in a statement released Tuesday afternoon, shortly after the Maryland State Department of Education released scores for the state's 24 school districts on the PARCC exams for Maryland's elementary, middle and high school students.
The Harford school system also released high school students' scores on the annual Advanced Placement exam – 60.4 percent of high schoolers who took the exam had a top score of 3, 4 or 5, according to an HCPS news release. More than 3,900 AP exams were administered to HCPS students, with scoring based on a scale of 1 to 5. According to the College Board, which administers the AP exams, scoring 3 or above means a student "is qualified for college level coursework."
Also released this week were national, state and local average scores for the SAT, which are taken by high school juniors and seniors across the country and remain a component in many colleges' admissions decisions.
SAT results
The Harford seniors who took the SAT before Jan. 1, 2016, when a redesigned test was implemented, scored above national and state averages on three components; however, the local averages were a few points lower on two of the test's three components compared to 2015.
Seniors who graduated from Harford County Public Schools last spring had a mean score of 511 on the critical reading component, 528 on the math component and 482 on the writing test; 800 was the top possible score in each. The previous year, 2014-15, the HCPS mean scores were 513 in critical reading, 528 in math and 492 on the writing test.
Statewide, SAT average scores were 490 in critical reading, 490 in math and 476 in writing, according to the MSDE. All three of those average scores had declined by a few points from the previous year.
Nationally, the averages were 494 for critical reading, 508 for math and 482 for writing, which also declined from the previous year, according to the College Board, which also administers the SAT.
According to HCPS, 1,527 seniors took the SAT before Jan. 1, 2016, when the redesigned test was implemented. In the 2014-15 school year, 1,671 seniors took the SAT.
The number of students taking the SAT has declined on the state and national levels during the past two years, from about 50,000 to 47,449 in Maryland. More students are taking the SAT's competitor, the ACT, and their scores continue to improve, according to the MSDE.
PARCC results
On PARCC tests given during the 2015-16 school year, reading results were down across the board for Harford County elementary and middle school students compared with the prior year, while math results were mixed. Results on three tests administered primarily to high schoolers both years showed significant gains.
Students are graded on a scale of 1 to 5 on all tests; those who scored a 4 met standards, and those who scored a 5 exceeded standards.
The percentage of Harford students meeting or exceeding college and career ready standards on the third grade reading test declined to 51.7 from 56.5 percent in 2014-2015. The percentage meeting or exceeding standards on the fourth grade reading test declined to 52.1 from 58 percent, while fifth grade reading results declined to 49.6 percent from 51 percent.
The percentage of students who met or exceeded standards on the sixth grade reading test declined slightly to 52.7 from 53 percent, while larger declines were posted on the seventh grade reading test, down to 53.3 percent from 55.7 percent, and on the eighth grade reading test, down to 47.9 percent from 56.5 percent.
The third grade math PARCC result improved to 57.8 percent from 51 percent; fourth grade math improved to 39.3 percent from 37.9 percent; and fifth grade math improved to 43.1 percent from 41.6 percent.
The sixth grade math PARCC result was off slightly at 43.2 percent compared with 43.7 percent in 2014-15, but seventh grade math improved to 28.7 percent from 23.5 percent.
The eighth grade math result, however, declined significantly to 16.9 percent meeting standards and less than 5 percent exceeding standards, from 45 percent meeting or exceeding standards in 2014-15.
Harford's 10th grade English result improved to 60.7 percent meeting or exceeding standards from 56 percent the prior year.
The Algebra I result improved to 49.2 meeting and standards and less than 5 percent exceeding standards, from 47 percent combined in 2014-15; the Algebra II result saw a major improvement to 47.3 percent meeting standards and less than 5 percent exceeding, from 28 percent in 2014-15.
Two new PARCC tests were implemented in the 2015-16 school year, 11th-grade English and geometry.
Those two tests were optional, according to William Reinhard, a spokesperson for the Maryland State Department of Education. In Harford, 1,012 students took the English 11 exam and 959 students took geometry, according to results posted on the MSDE's Maryland Report Card website.
Test data showed 34 percent of Harford test-takers met standards on the 11th-grade English test and less than 5 percent exceeded standards; 48.1 percent met standards on the geometry test and 13 percent exceeded standards.
Exceeding standards
The percentage of Harford County test-takers who exceeded standards, by scoring at least 4 out of 5, increased on five of the 15 PARCC tests administered last year compared to the prior year.
The results showed 9.1 percent exceeded standards for the sixth-grade English test, compared to 8.5 percent the previous year; 18.5 percent exceeded on the seventh-grade English test, compared to 16.8 percent; 6.5 percent exceeded on the fifth-grade math test, compared to 5.2 percent, and 20.9 percent exceeded on the 10th-grade English test, compared to 18.3 percent in 2015.
The largest jump was on the third-grade math test, on which 17.2 percent of test-takers exceeded standards, compared to 9.5 percent the previous year.
Among Harford's 33 elementary schools, Bel Air Elementary School (English 3), Churchville Elementary (English 4 and 5), Forest Hill Elementary (English 4 and 5), Hickory Elementary (English 5), Youths' Benefit Elementary (Math 3) posted results on individual PARCC exams with 75 percent of their test-takers meeting or exceeding standards.
Bel Air Middle School (Algebra 1 and geometry), Edgewood Middle (Algebra 1), Fallston Middle (Algebra 1 and geometry), Havre de Grace Middle (geometry), North Harford Middle (Algebra 1), Southampton Middle (Geometry) and Patterson Mill High School (English 10) also had at least 75 percent of their test-takers meeting or exceeding standards.
Bel Air Middle and Fallston Middle both had 95 percent of their test-takers meeting or exceeded standards on the algebra and geometry tests.
Despite the declines in the percentage of Harford students exceeding standards on half the tests, the local PARCC scores remain well above the state averages in nearly all subject areas, except for English 11, where 37.3 percent of test-takers statewide met or exceeded standards, compared to 34 percent in Harford who met standards and less than 5 percent who exceeded – about even.
"Our staff work tirelessly to support the implementation of multiple assessment measures to evaluate the academic progress of each individual student," Canavan said. "I am proud that our students continue to rise to the increasingly high expectations and standards that have been established to prepare them to be college and career ready."