According to this year’s math and English Language Arts (ELA) tests administered by the state of New York, less than a third of students in grades three through eight are performing at grade level.
The scores, released Wednesday, Aug. 7, represent a significant drop since last year, but State Education Commissioner John King insists there’s no cause for alarm.
“These proficiency scores do not reflect a drop in performance, but rather a raising of standards to reflect college and career readiness in the 21st century,” King said. “I understand these scores are sobering for parents, teachers, and principals. It’s frustrating to see our children struggle. But we can’t allow ourselves to be paralyzed by frustration; we must be energized by this opportunity. The results we’ve announced are not a critique of past efforts; they’re a new starting point on a roadmap to future success.”
This year’s exams mark the first time exams incorporated so-called Common Core learning standards, a more rigorous benchmark approved by the Board of Regents in 2010. The requirements, which have been adopted in states across the country, are aimed at helping children acquire sophisticated reasoning skills. The goal behind these standards is to move the schools away from rote learning to a writing-intensive curriculum that emphasizes problem-solving skills. Tests are graded on a scale of 1 to 4; levels 3 and 4 indicate proficiency. Statewide, 31.1 percent of students in grades three through eight met or exceeded the ELA proficiency standard, while 31 percent met or exceeded the math proficiency standard. Last year, those numbers were closer to 55 percent, but state education officials said the tests are so different that they shouldn’t be compared.
“The world has changed, the economy has changed and what our students need to know has changed,” Board of Regents Chancellor Merryl H. Tisch said. “These scores reflect a new baseline and a new beginning. We have just finished the first year of a dramatic shift in teaching and learning. Teachers, principals, superintendents and school boards have worked extraordinarily hard to implement the Common Core. With the right tools, the right training, and continuous feedback and support, our teachers — the best teaching force in the country — will make sure all our students are prepared for college and career success in the 21st century.”
Because these scores supposedly create a new “baseline” for measuring student achievement, King asserted that they would not affect state aid for districts, nor would they negatively impact teacher and principal evaluations.
On a local level, test scores largely fell in line with the rest of the state. But in the Fayetteville-Manlius school district, more than half of all students met or exceeded the proficiency standard for both the math and ELA exams in every grade level except fifth grade math, with 49.4 percent of students meeting or exceeding standards.
In fact, F-M also had the top four highest percentages of students meeting or exceeding standards in Central New York. 83.1 percent of eighth graders and 88.2 percent of sixth graders at Eagle Hill Middle School met or exceeded the standard on their math tests and 79.8 percent of Enders Road third graders did the same on their math tests.
“Our staff members have adjusted our curriculum to better align with these new standards and will continue to do so based upon the assessment results,” said F-M Superintendent Corliss Kaiser. “We are proud to have such a dedicated and excellent staff. Any decrease in student scores should not be interpreted as a decline in student learning or teacher performance. Instead, we view this as a new baseline for the skills students need to be successful after high school. Our society needs citizens well-versed in critical thinking and problem solving – which are stressed in the new standards. While these skill sets have always been incorporated into our curriculums, the changes we have made will better prepare our students for the ever-changing world that awaits them.”
The Jamesville-DeWitt district, meanwhile, was well above the state average as well. 59.2 percent of its students met or exceeded the fifth grade math standards. And scores in the East Syracuse Minoa district were right around the state average, with 29.8 percent of fifth-graders meeting or exceeding state standards on the math exam.
The major issue, however, is that many of New York’s teachers say they were — and still are — inadequately prepared to teach Common Core, and that’s what contributed to low scores.
“These tests were attached to Common Core standards, which have been incompletely rolled out in New York,” said Dr. Teresa Thayer Snyder, superintendent of the Voorheesville Central School District near Albany; the district boasts a 97 percent high school graduation rate, yet has comparable ELA and math proficiency levels to the rest of the state. Snyder, who has been a school administrator for several years, made the comments on her blog, which has been praised by education policy analyst Diane Ravitch. “The material covered large quantities of information that have not been taught, with texts well past grade level and concepts that require cognitive processing that is more typical of older students. From my point of view, after many years of studying teaching and learning — and multiple years spent working in schools — these assessments are impure science. I cannot justify impure science as a means of determining student learning or teacher effectiveness.”
Snyder even questioned whether Common Core was all the state was making it out to be.
“The Common Core standards are being widely heralded as the best thing to happen in education — a message initiated by the author of the same standards,” she wrote. “Truthfully, we don’t know if they are better than what we have had, we won’t know for several years. I would take considerably more comfort in this optimistic view if it were not rooted in the verbiage of their architect. What has been accomplished here is a phenomenal marketing job — so much spin about so little substantive work, with no research base to support the claims.”
“There comes a time when we need to stand up and point out that there are too many holes here,” Snyder said. “This is not about educational reform, it is about degrading the work that we do in schools.”
For more on Common Core, visit engageny.org.
State averages/percent meeting or exceeding standards:
Grade 3 ELA: 31.1 percent
Grade 3 Math: 33.6 percent
Grade 4 ELA: 30.3 percent
Grade 4 Math: 36.3 percent
Grade 5 ELA: 30.2 percent
Grade 5 Math: 29.9 percent
Grade 6 ELA: 29.6 percent
Grade 6 Math: 30.5 percent
Grade 7 ELA: 31.4 percent
Grade 7 Math: 27.7 percent
Grade 8 ELA: 33.7 percent
Grade 8 Math: 27.4 percent
Jamesville-DeWitt School District: Tecumseh Elementary:
Grade 3 ELA: 61.1 percent
Grade 3 Math: 50 percent
Grade 4 ELA: 51.3 percent
Grade 4 Math: 57.6 percent
Jamesville Elementary:
Grade 3 ELA: 50.5 percent
Grade 3 Math: 52.7 percent
Grade 4 ELA: 57.6 percent
Grade 4 Math: 50 percent
Moses DeWitt Elementary:
Grade 3 ELA: 54.8 percent
Grade 3 Math: 43.6 percent
Grade 4 ELA: 28.5 percent
Grade 4 Math: 32.3 percent
Jamesville-DeWitt Middle School:
Grade 5 ELA: 50.6 percent
Grade 5 Math: 59.2 percent
Grade 6 ELA: 57.3 percent
Grade 6 Math: 59.8 percent
Grade 7 ELA: 59.2 percent
Grade 7 Math: 53.4 percent
Grade 8 ELA: 67.2 percent
Grade 8 Math: 51.4 percent
East Syracuse Minoa School District
Fremont Elementary:
Grade 3 ELA: 46.3 percent
Grade 3 Math: 38.9 percent
Grade 4 ELA: 60 percent
Grade 4 Math: 72 percent
Grade 5 ELA: 43.1 percent
Grade 5 Math: 47.1 percent
Woodland Elementary:
Grade 3 ELA: 37.8 percent
Grade 3 Math: 41.5 percent
Grade 4 ELA: 15.8 percent
Grade 4 Math: 36.8 percent
Grade 5 ELA: 23 percent
Grade 5 Math: 36 percent
East Syracuse Elementary:
Grade 3 ELA: 16.6 percent
Grade 3 Math: 12 percent
Grade 4 ELA: 13 percent
Grade 4 Math: 20.4 percent
Grade 5 ELA: 16.3 percent
Grade 5 Math: 20.9 percent
Minoa Elementary:
Grade 3 ELA: 33.3 percent
Grade 3 Math: 37.7 percent
Grade 4 ELA: 30 percent
Grade 4 Math: 27.2 percent
Grade 5 ELA: 19.7 percent
Grade 5 Math: 16.7 percent
Pine Grove Middle School:
Grade 6 ELA: 26.3 percent
Grade 6 Math: 27.2 percent
Grade 7 ELA: 30.1 percent
Grade 7 Math: 30.3 percent
Grade 8 ELA: 42.9 percent
Grade 8 Math: 30.5 percent
Fayetteville-Manlius School District: Mott Road Elementary:
Grade 3 ELA: 63.3 percent
Grade 3 Math: 75.1 percent
Grade 4 ELA: 54.8 percent
Grade 4 Math: 66.3 percent
Enders Road Elementary:
Grade 3 ELA: 58.5 percent
Grade 3 Math: 79.8 percent
Grade 4 ELA: 62.4 percent
Grade 4 Math: 77.8 percent
Fayetteville Elementary:
Grade 3 ELA: 52.5 percent
Grade 3 Math: 67 percent
Grade 4 ELA: 46.5 percent
Grade 4 Math: 55.3 percent
Wellwood Middle School:
Grade 5 ELA: 40.7 percent
Grade 5 Math: 44.2 percent
Grade 6 ELA: 61.5 percent
Grade 6 Math: 68.8 percent
Grade 7 ELA: 59.9 percent
Grade 7 Math: 56.3 percent
Grade 8 ELA: 69.1 percent
Grade 8 Math: 72.5 percent
Eagle Hill Middle School:
Grade 5 ELA: 58.4 percent
Grade 5 Math: 73.5 percent
Grade 6 ELA: 70.8 percent
Grade 6 Math: 88.2 percent
Grade 7 ELA: 64.4 percent
Grade 7 Math: 73.3 percent
Grade 8 ELA: 77 percent
Grade 8 Math: 83.1 percent
