Cut score increases drop test scores

Test scores fell across Long Island and throughout New York 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 are tested every year in grades 3-8. This year, the tests were also moved back, from January for the ELA and from March for math, to May for both.

State Education Commissioner David Steiner had recommended increasing the "cut scores," which determine a student's proficiency level. Students scoring in Levels 1 (below standard) and 2 (meets basic standard) are considered to be in need of academic intervention, while those placing in Levels 3 (meets proficiency standard) and 4 (exceeds proficiency standard) are considered to have passed.

The higher cut scores mean many students who were scoring in Level 3 are now at Level 2. This year, across New York state, 53 percent of all students tested passed the ELA exam compared to 77 percent last year. Math proficiency went down from 86 percent to 61 percent.

The state says that students in Level 2, under the new scoring guidelines, only have a 75 percent chance of achieving a passing grade of 65 on the English or algebra Regents exams.

However, Laura Seinfeld, Hewlett-Woodmere School Districts recently installed assistant superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction, compared the revised cut scores to moving the goal posts while a field goal is in mid-flight.

Seinfeld, who went from English chair to her current post on July 1, said that due to the revised cut scores approximately 20 percent of the students who were Level 3 in 2009 are now Level 2 this year.

"It is very difficult to compare results from this year's ELA and math to the previous year due to the changes in cutoff scores — mid-summer, months after the tests were taken and scored," she said.

The change in scoring had a third-grade ELA student needing 29 out of 33 raw points to score a Level 3 this year compared to last year when 24 out of 33 would have the student at that proficiency level, said Seinfeld, who added that the district strives to educate students based on the four As: Academics, Arts, Activities and Athletics.

In 2009 the district had 56.3 percent of its third grade students register Level 3 in math, while this year that figure dropped to 40.6 percent. This year's test bumped the amount of Level 2s from 3.9 percent to 23.8 percent with 202 students being tested.

Gary Schall, Lawrence School District's deputy superintendent agreed with Seinfeld's analogy about the goal posts and said that the district monitors student progress annually.

A student that went one year from a 650 mean score to 660 is showing progress, said Schall, who thinks it is a "slap in the face to the students and teachers who are really working hard," when these figures are printed without an explanation of what they mean.

In 2009, Lawrence had 69.8 percent of its eighth graders earn Level 3 in ELA. This year that number declined to 54.5 percent as the amount of Level 2 student jumped from 18.1 percent to 35.1 percent with 227 students being tested.

"We are very interested in data driving instruction and will go through the specific test results item by item," said Schall, who noted the state's desire to align its assessment with nationwide trends is to "tap into federal monies."

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 methods in deciding which students should receive additional help during the 2010-11 school year.

"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."

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