Education

D.O.E. To Begin Territory-Wide Common Core-Based Standard Assessments On March 14

ST. THOMAS -- The Virgin Islands Department of Education will administer the end-of-year Common Core-based Smarter Balanced Summative Assessments in English/Language Arts and mathematics to public school students in 3rd – 6th grades, and 11th grade beginning Monday, March 14, 2016, D.O.E. has said. The testing window is open through June 17, 2016. This is the second year D.O.E. will administer the online tests, which are aligned to the Virgin Islands new academic standards that were adopted in 2010. The tests were administered to students for the first time at the end of school year 2014-15, and showed dismal results, with only 17 percent of students from all grades meeting or exceeding the English and Language Arts standard in DOE’s new system; while only 7 percent excelled in math. “These results usher in a new era for Virgin Islands public education and is a first glance into where Virgin Islands’ students are with meeting more rigorous academic standards that focus on critical thi...