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Overcast Raising the bar on student testing
East Rockaway, Lynbrook school officials react to results
Test scores seemed to have fallen throughout New York and across Long Island after the State Education Department raised the bar 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 English Language Arts and math. Students in grades 3 through 8 are tested every year in grades 3-8. In addition to the scoring changes, this year, the tests were also given later, to May from January for the ELA and from March for math.
State Education Commissioner David Steiner had recommended increasing 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 passed.
The higher cut scores mean 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 the 77 percent last year. Math proficiency dropped dramactically from 86 percent to 61 percent.
The state says that students at Level 2, under the new scoring guidelines, only have only a 75 percent chance of achieving 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 did lead 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.”
