Scoring changes lower East Meadow test results

Grades on the state English Language Arts and math exams fell in East Meadow, across Long Island and throughout New York after the State Education Department recalibrated the proficiency ratings at all grade levels in an effort to better prepare students for higher education.
  
In recent years, school districts across the state had enjoyed continually increasing passing rates in the annual ELA and math tests for students in grades 3 through 8. In addition to the scoring changes this year, the tests were moved to May, from January for the ELA and from March for math.
   
State Education Commissioner David Steiner had recommended raising the “cut scores,” which determine a student’s proficiency level. Students scoring at levels 1 and 2 are considered to be in need of academic intervention, while those at levels 3 and 4 are considered to have met or exceeded state standards.
   
The higher cut scores mean that many students who were scoring at Level 3 are now at Level 2. This year, across the state, 53 percent of all students tested passed the ELA exam, compared with 77 percent last year. Math proficiency dropped dramatically as well, from 86 percent to 61 percent.
  
According to the state, under the new scoring guidelines, students at Level 2 have only have a 75 percent chance of getting a passing grade of 65 on the English or algebra Regents exams.
   
“It’s clear from our review that some students who scored proficient on state exams found themselves unprepared, without remediation, to do the work required of them when they reached college,” Steiner said.
  
State Regents Chancellor Meryl Tisch said, “We are doing a great disservice when we say that a child is proficient when that child is not. Nowhere is this more true than among our students who are most in need.”
   
Steiner acknowledged that the higher cut scores led to lower passing rates around the state. “While that is sobering news,” he said, “it should cause all of us to work ever more effectively together to ensure that all children in New York state get the knowledge and skills they need.”
   
The midsummer adjustment, coming more than two months after school districts adopted their budgets, could leave many scrambling for funds to provide extra remedial instruction for students who scored poorly. However, the state has said that school districts should use the previous year’s scoring method to decide which students should receive additional help during the 2010-11 school year.

Results in East Meadow
   
On paper, the East Meadow School District’s performance on the ELA and math assessments appeared significantly poorer than in 2009. The percentage of students who met or exceeded state standards on the tests dropped in every grade.
  
However, as East Meadow Superintendent Louis DeAngelo pointed out, the numbers are deceiving. For example, if a student needed to score 25 points on the 2009 test to be considered proficient in a subject area, the 2010 test required a score of 35 or 40 points to equal that level of proficiency.
   
“In East Meadow, our students performed as well and, in many instances, even better than they did last year, raw score wise,” DeAngelo said.
  
He added that the state’s decision to raise the required raw scores for each proficiency level is not necessarily an “authentic” approach to improving proficiency. DeAngelo insisted that the district would be ready for the newly revised assessments expected to come out in the near future.
   
“While we applaud the [Education] Department’s initiative in attempting to raise the bar academically, simply manipulating existing test formats to do so may not really be the authentic way to improve academic proficiency,” DeAngelo said. “We look forward to [the department’s] newly revised assessments and are confident that our East Meadow students will perform at their usually high level.”