In the coming months, the Agency of Education (AOE) will be prioritizing the improvement of reading and math outcomes for students.
The research studies behind Act 173 identified a concerning trend in our Smarter Balanced Assessment data, and this trend appears to have been confirmed by our recent performance on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). Specifically, the trend shows that over the last several years nearly half of our students are consistently “not proficient” in reading and math in Grade 3 and Grade 4.
It is also clear from the research studies behind Act 173 that we have insufficient data to address these performance concerns. We have no state-level data prior to Grade 3, and the data we do have is not necessarily connected or tagged to intervention programs and curricular resources. To address this issue, we are pleased to announce that we have leveraged federal grant funds to offer statewide, no-cost access to the Lexile and Quantile Frameworks and their associated resources.