Count participation in the Performance Evaluation for Alaska’s Schools assessment tests as one of the many areas affected by distance learning and the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n
Traditionally, most of Alaska’s students in grades three through nine take the exams each spring.<\/p>\n
According to a news release from the Department of Education and Early Development, only about 64% of Alaska’s eligible students took the tests in 2021. As a result of the low participation, DEED cautions against comparing 2021 PEAKS data to previous years at the statewide level.<\/p>\n
Local participation lags<\/strong><\/p>\n In Juneau, the number of students who participated was even lower.<\/p>\n According to DEED’s website, across all grades, 61.39% of Juneau’s students participated in the English Language Arts portion of the test and 60.26% participated in the mathematics assessment.<\/p>\n “We did not have a high participation rate,” said Ted Wilson, director of teaching and learning support for the district, in a phone interview this week. “Lots of students who were virtual did not come in to be assessed.”<\/p>\n Wilson said that about 95% of Juneau’s students sit for the exams in a typical year.<\/p>\n School officials administered the tests between March 29 and April 30. During that window, only a portion of students attended school in person, and overall in-person attendance options were restricted due to COVID-19 mitigations.<\/p>\n Juneau schools add COVID-19 mitigation layers<\/a><\/ins><\/p>\n A look at the data<\/strong><\/p>\n Across all grades, 44.21% of Juneau’s students were deemed advanced or proficient in English Language Arts, and 32.55% of the students were found to be advanced or proficient in math.<\/p>\n Across grades statewide, 39.5% of Alaska’s students were deemed advanced or proficient in English Language Arts and 32.38% earned that designation for math.<\/p>\n Locally, proficiency levels grew in the higher grades. Among ninth graders, 56.57% were advanced or proficient in English Language Arts, and 46.15% were deemed advanced or proficient in math.<\/p>\n However, participation among ninth graders fell to 52.41% for the language portion of the test and to 46.69% for the math portion.Statewide, 36.22% of ninth graders were deemed advanced or proficient in English Language Arts and 30.69% earned that designation in math.<\/p>\n