Information About PARCC Test Scores

November10, 2015

Dear Parent/Guardianof a kindergarten through 8th grade student,

As you may have seen in the news, the school district has received preliminary information about PARCC (Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers) English Language Arts and Math scores for high school students. This new state assessment was developed by educators and other experts and is aligned to higher standards adopted by New Mexico and other states.

PARCCreplacesNew Mexico’s previous annual test, the Standards Based Assessment (SBA),and is based onthe higher standards that your children are being taught in the classroom.PARCCmoves away from fill-in-the-bubble questionsand requires students to read complex text, develop well-organized written responses, answer real-world math problems, and describe and defend their reasoning. It gives students information about how well prepared they are to be successful in college.

We expect that the district will receive individual student score reports in December from the Public Education Department (PED). Our teachers will need time to analyze results and be prepared to answer your questions; therefore, individual student reports will be sent home in the first weeks of January. When you see your child’s individual scores, they will be broken down into different categories in both ELA and math.This will help you and your child’s teachers to better understand where your child is doing well and where he/she needs more help.

The PARCC assessment measures more complex, real-world skills, which is more challenging than SBA, so your child’s scores—and scores for your school and district—may be lower than you’ve seen on the SBA in past years. PARCC is establishing a new baseline from which progress can be measured moving forward. Because PARCC is so different than the SBA, PARCC scores should not be directly compared to SBA scores.

Your child’s school and our district are committed to using this information to continue to fine-tune the experience of students to ensure that they are prepared for any future they choose.

You can visit for more information about PARCC, how it will be used, and how to support your child.

Thank you.

LCPS Office of Instruction

For more resources and additional information visit