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More Than Half Md. Students Failing Latest Standardized Test

BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- The latest results are in, and they're not good. Maryland students are failing the latest standardized test.

Gigi Barnett explains why school leaders say they are not concerned about the results.

Back in the spring, millions of students in Maryland and across the country took the PARCC standardized test. Some students remember it well.

"It was long. I sat there a couple hours," one student said.

"The computers didn't work very well, but after they started working, it was better than the MSA," said another.

Now, months later, the results are in for the 3rd through 8th graders who took it--and less than half of all Maryland students passed it.

"It's a new test. We're not expecting students to jump right in," said Bill Reinhard, Maryland State Department of Education spokesman.

Reinhard says a drop in test scores usually happens when a new test is introduced, but don't expect those test scores to stay low for long.

"That's our history. MSA, we started that. Thirty, forty percent passing the first go around. It improves," said Reinhard.

With just 39 percent of Maryland students passing the reading section and 29 percent acing math, some parents say students may have needed more time to take it.

"You had these big clumps where they were doing lots of testing over a short period of time versus spreading it out. And so, I think if someone had looked at a general calendar, they might have been able to test in a more efficient way," said Leslie Jamka, parent.

Around the country, schools in Illinois, Louisiana and Rhode Island struggled on the PARCC test, while students in Massachusetts and New Jersey did slightly better.

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