PEAKS Performance 2021: The Pandemic Did Alaska’s Students No FavorsPosted & Edited By MARY KAUFFMAN
October 24, 2021
PEAKS assesses the proficiency of public school students from 3rd to 9th grade in English Language Arts and Mathematics. There was no PEAKS administration in 2020 due to schools’ response to the pandemic, and 2021 participation rates were lower than normal. Although the PEAKS scores are available online from the state on a per-school basis, APF’s maps aggregate the results in a visual tool that allows users to view and compare scores from schools across the state. On the map, a red schoolhouse indicates a student average of 51 to 100% below proficiency for all grades and subjects tested. Research Associate at Alaska Policy Forum Sarah Montalbano said, “Our schools should work to help every child be proficient in reading and math. These maps demonstrate that most of Alaska’s schools are failing to ensure proficiency in basic skills. Our state needs to ensure this never happens to another generation of young Alaskans.” The related APF analysis of all students statewide finds that Alaska third-graders are the least proficient for their grade level in English, and that public charter schools outperform traditional public schools. The Alaska Policy Forum's findings of Alaska public school student results reported that statewide across all grades, 60.50 percent of students were below or far below proficient in ELA. Across all grades, 67.62 percent of students were below or far below proficient in mathematics. Compared to 2019, there was a 0.3 percent increase in proficiency in ELA and a 3.34 percent decrease in proficiency in mathematics. Figure 2, below, plots the percentage of students proficient in ELA and mathematics across the state in both subjects for 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2021, the years for which data is available. The Alaska Policy Forum publishes the PEAKS maps annually to present the performance of Alaska’s public schools in an accessible format. The maps are available online at http://peaks.alaskapolicyforum.org/. The Alaska Department of Education and Early Development (DEED) released the statewide, district, school, and subgroup level results from the 2021 administration of the Performance Evaluation for Alaska’s Schools (PEAKS) assessment September 7, 2021. These results are available online. School districts had until September 30th to distribute student-level reports to parents and educators at their local levels. According to the Alaska Dept. of Education, approximately 44,400 students participated in the Spring 2021 administration of PEAKS. That is about 64% of students enrolled in the test grades of 3-9. DEED extended flexibilities including extending the testing hours to evenings and weekends, reducing reporting requirement, and extending the testing window by a week to help schools safely assess as many students as possible given the mitigation practices in place to reduce the transmission of COVID-19. Even with these flexibilities, participation rates varied significantly from district to district and among demographic categories according to the DOE. Given the low overall participation rate and the high variability in participation among student groups, The Alaska Department of Education cautioned against comparing 2021 PEAKS data to previous years at the statewide level. The department said the results are still valuable for assessing performance at the school and individual student levels. Parents and educators can use individual student data from PEAKS, along with other local assessments, to inform decisions about instructional needs during the 2021-2022 school year. DEED has published a Parent Guide to Student Reports and FAQs online under the “results” tab. Ketchikan School District's 20-21 performance results are available online, click here. Statewide PEAKS results are available online for all districts at Alaska Dept. of Education’s 2021 Assessment Results website.
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