Common Exams: Fall Data Update

1. Common Exams:Fall Data Update Parent Advisory Council February 19, 2013

2. The Grading Curve • Look at final mark percentages for actual courses (multiple years for stability) • EXAMPLE: PRE-CALCULUS (2004-12 – 13,206 records) FINAL MARK CURVE ORIGINAL CURVE • 24% As (17%) • 33% Bs (30%) • 27% Cs (26%) • 13% Ds (17%) • 3% Fs (10%)

3. Curve Alternative • Curve works best when data reflect a normal curve • Required subjects (EOCs) follow a normal curve • What if most/all students do well? • Some Common Exams – like Pre-Calculus • Solution: calculate the % of items correct for students and give the higher between curve and percentage

4. Example • A student answers 39 out of 50 items correctly, which is the lowest score in the test distribution • The curve would assign an F • The actual percentage correct is 39/50, or 78% (which is a C) • Student would receive the C

5. Report Cards • High school report cards distributed on February 1 • Later than normal date to accommodate brief delay in reporting Common Exams and some EOCs • We anticipated only English 2 to be initially recorded as incompletes • UPDATE: ENGLISH 2 still not available

6. English Language Arts I

18. State (NCDPI) Updates • NCDPI will determine if some of the assessments need to be altered • The number of items may be decreased to address concerns that the assessments were too long to be completed during the time provided. • Spring assessments will have different constructed response items than the fall assessments.

19. Questions