Are Alaska schools an ‘education desert’?

Thirty-nine percent of Alaska students scored at a “proficient level” in English language arts, while 35.7 percent scored at a proficient level in mathematics, and 44.6 percent scored at a proficient level in science on the latest Performance Evaluation for Alaska’s Schools assessment and Alaska Science Assessment.

The shocking numbers reveal how many students are non-proficient in Alaska schools. See the A-K districts scores below and  link to the L-Y districts’ scores here.

About 76,400 students participated in the spring 2019 PEAKS and science assessment, which gauges school improvement efforts across the state. The test was adopted in 2012, and was first administered in 2017.

• The 2017 grade 4 student class achieved growth over three years in English language arts proficiency.
  In Grade 4, they scored 38.8 percent proficient. By Grade 6 they had improved to 45.5 percent proficient.
• Also, Grade 9 students in 2019 achieved a 5.2 percent increase in math proficiency than Grade 9 students tested in 2018. This was the second year the Grade 9 math PEAKS assessment emphasized Algebra 1 concepts.
• Those who are English learners improved slightly in both English language arts and math proficiency, improving in English language arts by nearly a percent year over year, up to 9.9 percent proficient.
• Eighth-graders who took the science test in 2017 scored 46.9 percent proficient. For the same class, when they took the 10th grade science test, they improved to 53.6 percent proficient.

Here are the Spring PEAKS results for Districts A-K:

Alaska Gateway School District: 85.96% below proficient to far-below proficient in English; 87.71% non proficient to far-below proficient in math.

Aleutian Region School District: 58.33% below proficient to far-below proficient in English; 75.00% non proficient to far-below proficient in math.

Aleutian East School District: 8.03% below proficient to far-below proficient in English; 68.03% non proficient to far-below proficient in math.

Anchorage School District: 57.78% below proficient to far-below proficient in English; 60.56% non proficient to far-below proficient in math.

Annette Island School District: 71.52% below proficient to far-below proficient in English; 73.94% non proficient to far-below proficient in math.

Bering Strait School District: 93.33%  below proficient to far-below proficient in English; 91.07% non proficient to far-below proficient in math.

Bristol Bay Borough School District: 79.25% below proficient to far-below proficient in English; 74.55% non proficient to far-below proficient in math.

Chatham Strait School District: 62.50% below proficient to far-below proficient in English; 67.82% non proficient to far-below proficient in math.

Chugach School District: 61.08% below proficient to far-below proficient in English; 83.13% non proficient to far-below proficient in math.

Copper River School District: 54.42% below proficient to far-below proficient in English; 61.50% non proficient to far-below proficient in math.

Education Week reports that there’s a steady erosion in the number of states using the PARCC or Smarter Balanced Common Core aligned tests, with five fewer this year than in 2018. Alaska is the only state using the PEAKS test.

Common Core was all the educational rage a decade ago, when 45 states were planning to use it by implementing the PARCC or Smarter Balanced assessments. Today, only 16 states are using those tests.

[See Education Week‘s fourth survey of state tests since 2014.]

Like Alaska, 31 other states use “non-Common Core consortium” tests. The number of states that require students to take college admissions tests or pass an exit exam to graduate is unchanged from 2017.