The Arizona Department of Education has released preliminary state level AzMERIT results for the 2015-16 school year. The results included statewide passing and proficiency rates for both English language arts and mathematics in grades three through eight and high school.

“I am pleased to see that our students are improving in both English language arts and mathematics at several grade levels,” said Superintendent of Public Instruction Diane Douglas. “However, these results also underscore that as a state we still have much work to do. I will continue working with our parents, teachers and community members to find the best possible ways to support our students and help them achieve their dreams.”

Students are given a rating of either highly proficient, proficient, partially proficient or minimally proficient. Results are also broken down into a percentage of students passing the tests.

The percentage of students passing the math test went up at every grade level in comparison to 2015 results, except in the area of Algebra II, where it remained the same, and eighth grade, where it dropped steeply from 34 percent to 26 percent.

Results were similar in English, remaining identical between 2015 and 2016 at the third grade level, but going up at all other grade levels except for eighth grade, tenth and eleventh.

Final AzMERIT results for all Arizona public schools, districts and charter holders will be made available in late August. Data released at that time will also include demographic breakdowns and performance by school type (district, charter and alternative).

Paper AzMERIT family reports will be made available to districts and charters in mid-July. Parents can contact their child’s school for more information on when and how they will have access to results for their students.

“While these types of results can show general trends, I still firmly believe that Arizona needs to move away from the high stakes, snapshot assessment model,” continued Douglas. “Testing was not originally created to determine how well a teacher or school is performing; it was designed to show us how to help students improve. I will keep that focus in mind as we work with Arizonans to develop our state’s future assessment systems.”

Arizona public school students in third grade through high school take AzMERIT. Students in grades three through eight take an assessment in English language arts (ELA) and mathematics at their grade level. Students taking high school level English and math take end-of-course assessments that test their proficiency in those subjects.

For more information on AzMERIT, visit azed.gov/azmerit.