Test results: More than half of students below expectations

(AP) – Maryland education officials have announced that more than half of students taking the a new statewide high school test did not meet the standards for the tenth grade English test and two-thirds fell below the mark for Algebra I.

The results, released Tuesday, are the first from Maryland’s use of exams linked to the rigorous Common Core State Standards known by the acronym PARCC, which stands for Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers.
    
The results for Maryland students on three high school exams show major gaps in student achievement by race, ethnicity and socio-economic categories.
    
For example, only a quarter of African Americans, 7 percent of special education students and 23 percent of students who qualify for a subsidized lunch met the benchmark in English.