By:JOSEPH KELLARD
In Oceanside, 81.6 percent of fourth-graders met state standards, down from 84.0 percent in 2003, and 67.9 percent of eighth-graders met the standards, down from 69.8 last year. In Island Park, 59.2 percent of eighth-graders met the standards, five points higher than last year's 54.2, while 75.3 percent of fourth-graders met the standards, down from 81.9 in 2003.
After seeing the scores, Oceanside Superintendent Dr. Herb Brown told the Herald his students "did well" and that the eighth-graders did "better than they've ever done before," scoring in the top half of the county.
Although comparisons of scores in a given grade with last year's don't reflect the development of the same students, the Herald asked Brown how he could interpret the lower scores as indicating that Oceanside students did better than before. "I think the test in fourth and eighth grades was more difficult than last year " he said. "I think the entire state was down. I think the entire county was down. And I think Oceanside's relative position in the county went up. When we look at how we're doing compared to everybody else, if they are giving more difficult tests, obviously everyone is going to get a lower grade."
Brown pointed to the mean scale score, the average of all the students who took the test, and that said Oceanside is No. 20 out of the 56 districts in the county.
"Our mean scale score was up there with the most prestigious school districts in the county," Brown said, "even though it was a more difficult test from last year, and we're very proud of that."
However, Johnathan Burman, a spokesman for the New York State Department of Education, told the Herald that the tests had no changes. "At the press conference that was held [on June 3], where [Commissioner Richard Mills] released these scores," Burman said when asked if the test was more difficult, "a reporter asked a similar question and the commissioner said that the test was set at the same level of difficulty as other exams. There were no flaws with this exam."
The state reports that elementary schools overall held onto previous gains made in reducing the percentage of students who score at level 1 (which reflects serious academic difficulties), and middle schools continued to reduce the number of children scoring at level 1. More than 62 percent of fourth-graders met all the state standards by scoring at levels 3 and 4 (which designate students who meet or exceed state standards). That number is down from 64 percent in 2003 but up from 48 percent in 1999, the first year the test was given.
The proportion of eighth-grade students meeting all the standards by scoring at levels 3 and 4 increased by two percent from last year, to 47 percent. But results are down from 1999, when 48 percent met all the standards.
The superintendent of Island Park schools, Dr. Ed Price, declined to comment in detail on the district's test scores until the next board meeting on June 28. "I haven't had a chance to analyze this data very carefully and fully," Price said. "We will be reporting on the test scores at our next board meeting, and at that point we'll have a full analysis."
