The underwhelming scores of the perplexing and misunderstood PARCC test (Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers) mostly administered to freshmen in April 2015 were finally released in December, causing even more confusion among LT staff and administrators.

“There’s no comparison for the scores, because no one has ever taken the test before and no one knows exactly what they mean,” Director of Curriculum and Instruction Scott Eggerding said.

The scores are represented by a performance level, numbered one through five. A one or a two is under the standard, a three is approaching the standard, a four is meeting and a five is exceeding the standard. LT had almost 60 percent of students score a four or five, which is nearly double the state average.

“We got the results in December after testing in April, so we can’t really do anything with the scores,” Eggerding said. “We still don’t even know what questions students missed, so we don’t know what to work on.”

The average scores for the state were very unimpressive, and, according to Tommy Pigatto ‘18 who took the test last year, one possible reason for the low scores was a lack of incentive to even achieve high scores.

“The test had no incentive at all,” Pigatto said. “Many kids either didn’t take it or didn’t try to do well.”

According to Eggerding, PARCC claims that the scores will be able to be sent to colleges, like ACT or SAT scores.

“Since we’re testing freshmen, it isn’t very realistic for them to send in their scores,” Eggerding said.

Another likely reason is the apparent difficulty of the test. However, this will be remedied for future PARCC tests. This year’s PARCC will be one test, as opposed to two different tests last year, LT Coordinator of Assessment and Research Katherine Smith said. The test will once again be distributed to freshmen.

“This combined test will actually have fewer questions, and will be in an edited format,” Smith said.

The scores that LT acquires this year will be unable to logically compare to last year’s, Eggerding said.

“There will be attempts to compare them, but the comparison will be largely invalid,” he said.

The future of the PARCC at LT is unknown, and it will probably cause more confusion for the school down the road.

“Ultimatelty, it is a very low-stakes test with very little incentive and reason to take it seriously,” Eggerding said.