By Anthony Rifilato
Last year was the first year the state was required to administer English and math exams in all grades 3 through 8. Previously, tests were given to fourth- and eighth-graders only, a requirement that changed with the passage of the federal No Child Left Behind Act.
School officials claim that the new methods have resulted in parents' receiving their children's individual results very late, and that the delay has disrupted students' schedules this far into the school year, mainly for those who have done poorly on the tests and require additional help.
At a community meeting at Baldwin High School on Oct. 25, parents questioned the lateness of the results, and asked school officials why they were released to the media before parents had access to them. School officials said after the meeting that while they received preliminary data this year that was eventually provided to parents, in the past the state has provided more complete information specifically targeted to parents prior to the start of the next school year.
"The individual parents were not getting their child's scores," School Superintendent Dr. Robert Britto said after the meeting.
Each year, the state provides districts with the test results for parents - known as parent reports - indicating whether their children scored at Level 1, 2, 3 or 4, the range of lowest to highest scores. School officials said the reports put the results in context for parents and help school districts create schedules for students, determining whether they need Academic Intervention Services or other programs to help them if they score at a low level.
Because of the number of tests now required, the state has had trouble keeping up with the heavy load, to the detriment of students, school officials said. "The state is having difficulty now due to the 3-through-8 testing requirements," Mike Roccoforte, the district's assistant superintendent for instruction, said after the meeting. "They can't keep up. Compounding the problem is that we received the data late. Every school in New York is in the same situation. We're hoping that it's just this year, and we'll continue to receive the information in a timely fashion."
Roccoforte said the district sent out its own information to elementary school parents based on the raw data it was given by the state, and did its best to determine a student's individual level. "We didn't accurately predict all of our kids," Roccoforte said, explaining that some students' schedules had to be changed to allow for AIS services. "Some parents were upset that the changes were made very late."
School officials received ELA parent reports late last month, but are still awaiting the math results, which they expect sometime this month. Ultimately, the state determines the final results. "We rely on them to score the tests," said Sandy Freiberg, director of curriculum and technology. "It's their score that counts. Nothing we do would be official."
The results of the tests administered last year showed that math scores plunged as students moved from elementary to middle school. In Nassau County, 91.4 percent of fourth-grade students passed the exam, compared with 74.4 percent of eighth-graders. In Baldwin, 84.6 percent of students in Grade 4 passed the exam, compared to 63.3 percent in Grade 8.
In English, 87.1 percent of the county's fourth-grade students passed the exam, while 69.8 percent of eighth-graders passed. Eighty-two percent of fourth-grade students in Baldwin passed, while 65.5 percent of eighth-graders passed.
The results were released in September, but parents took issue with the fact that they read the figures in the media before they were sent out by the district. "Typically what happens is that schools and parents know the results before school starts," Roccoforte said. "We have the raw data. What we don't have is the information that could be easily handed to parents. "
School officials as well as parents said they believe the test results are often portrayed as a competition in the media. They maintain that the tests are not an accurate measure of a district's performance, but rather a barometer that can be used to gauge students' strengths and weaknesses so that educators can address the areas where children are struggling, whether through Academic Intervention Services or other programs.
"What is the point of the testing?" asked parent Deidre Oriani, who criticized the state for providing the results to the media before parents or school districts received them. She explained that student involvement in academic and athletic extracurricular activities is not reflected in the tests. "They're not showing what our kids do."
School officials shared those sentiments. "It's enormously frustrating," School Board President Mary Jo O'Hagan said. "The whole point of testing is to use those results to enhance instruction." O'Hagan said the lateness of the results this year made it a real challenge to identify students who required additional services, since many students had moved up a grade by the time the results arrived.
Britto said he and other superintendents throughout the state are questioning the validity of the testing process, claiming that the data used to explain the tests were never made public. The superintendents, he said, have called on the state to release the research methods used in its testing and grading process. "This is not a case of sour grapes," Britto said. "That information has never been provided."
State officials said it was unfair to compare the test scores this year with previous results, because the standards were changed, but they added that they stood by their results. "We checked and double-checked our work, and the work of our outside vendor, CTB-McGraw Hill, at every step," said spokesman Jonathan Burman. "We have learned from the experience of other states that rushing these processes poses unacceptable risks. Therefore, we took all necessary steps to ensure accuracy before we released scores."
Burman also said that school districts were told early on that they would not be receiving the results of the English exams until the end of the summer or the beginning of the fall. "Remember, we now have triple the number of tests to be administered and scored," he said.
Burman added that the math scores were delivered at the same time they have always been, in early October.
Roccoforte disagreed. "Typically we would get the ELA towards the end of the school year, and the math we would get in the summer," he said, adding that although the district anticipated late results this year, the wait was too long. "It was not supposed to be the middle of October," Roccoforte said.
He explained that the tests are taken extremely seriously and that the district pores over the official results, looking at ways to improve teaching and learning - even if the scores are high.
And the exam review is not just a way to fine-tune instruction so as to boost scores, he explained. "The board has always been supportive, and doesn't want us to substitute test preparation for the curriculum," Roccoforte said. "No matter what we have, we look at it as 'we could do better,' even if they're high."
