Links for Portland Parents of Talented and Gifted Children

 


 

Portland Student Achievement Data Start Page

 


 

 

 

 

The best way to assess the learning students are doing in school is to look at the gains they make from one year to the next, not at the absolute level of their achievement scores.  Portland Public Schools reports this information for all PPS students and also breaks it down by their achievement level in the previous year in five categories: very low, low, nearly meets, meets and exceeds.  In addition, the gains made by students in these categories is also broken down by ethnicity and by whether the students are participating in the Federal Free and Reduced Meal program (a proxy for low-income students).  The first chart below (Assessment Overview) shows the gains by all Portland students in these ability groups in three school levels: grades 4-5, 6-8 and 11, taken straight from the PPS website. 

 

I used the data reported by PPS to assemble tables and graphs comparing the gains of students in four of the achievement categories broken down by free/reduced lunch, Hispanic and African-American.  (I did not create a chart for "very low" students because their numbers were too small). 

 

These tables and graphs show that student gains are inversely correlated with their level of achievement: students who exceeded benchmarks make lower gains than other students whereas students who were "low" made higher gains.  They also show that students in the low income, Hispanic and African-American groups who exceeded make lower gains than the average students who exceeded, suggesting that the problem is not merely due to ceiling effects of the tests.  Finally, they also show that the gaps among these groups are greatest among the students with the highest levels of achievement. The achievement gap is at the top. This is the final year for which these charts are available: the district is now using a different reporting system for Smarter Balanced results.

 

 

 

 

 

Previous years

 

2014 PPS Assessment overview by school level

 

2013-4 student reading and math gains by students who were "low performing" broken out by ethnicity/income

 

2013-4 student reading and math gains by students who "nearly met" broken out by ethnicity/income

 

2013-4 student reading and math gains by students who  "met" performing" broken out by ethnicity/income

 

2013-4 student reading and math gains by students who  "exceeded" broken out by ethnicity/income

 

2013-14 gains by students who exceeded: PPS compared to ACCESS

 

 

 

 

2012-13- PPS Assessment overview by school level

 

2012-13 student reading and math gains by students who were "low performing" broken out by ethnicity/income

 

2012-13 student reading and math gains by students who "nearly met" broken out by ethnicity/income

 

2012-13 student reading and math gains by students who "met" broken out by ethnicity/income

 

2012-13 student reading and math gains by students who exceeded: broken out by ethnicity/income

 

 

 

2011-12 PPS Assessment overview by school level

 

2011-12 student reading and math gains by students who were "low performing" broken out ethnicity/income

 

2011-12 student reading and math gains by students who "nearly met" broken out by ethnicity/income

 

2011-12 student reading and math gains by students who "met" broken out by ethnicity/income

 

2011-12 student reading and math gains by students who exceeded: broken out by ethnicity/income

 

2011-12 tables of the differences in gains by students in different ability groups and ethnicities

 

2011-12 gains by students who exceeded: PPS compared to ACCESS

 

 

 

 

2010-11 report: The Achievement Gap is at the Top: Portland Data shows differences in gains for low income/minority students by ability level (.pdf file)

 

2010-11 student reading and math gains by ability and ethnicity/income: table and charts

 

2010-11 gains achieved by students who exceeded the previous year: PPS compared to ACCESS

 

2010-11 gains achieved by students' ability level: Grant High School compared to PPS

 

 

2009-10 student reading and math gains by ability and ethnicity/income: table and charts

 

2009-10 gains achieved by students who exceeded the previous year: PPS compared to ACCESS

 

 

2008-09 Student reading and math gains by ability and ethnicity/income: table and charts

2007-08 Student reading and math gains by ability and ethnicity/income: table and charts

 

2006-07 Student reading and math gains by ability and ethnicity/income: table and charts          

06-07 Student reading and math gains by ability: West Sylvan, PPS and George Middle Schools compared

 

05-06 Student reading and math gains by ability and ethnicity/income: charts and tables

04-05 Student reading and math gains by ability and ethnicity/income

Jefferson Achievement Test Score Gains compared with PPS

Comments on Student Achievement to the Portland School Board, April 9, 2001

 

 

 

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