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State Education Officials Announce Recalibrated Scores for Grade 3-8 ELA and Math Assessments
On Wednesday, July 28, 2010, New York State Commissioner of Education David Steiner and State Board of Regents Chancellor Merryl Tisch made public the results of the Spring 2010 administration of New York State’s Assessments in English Language Arts and Mathematics to students in grades 3 through 8. Their announcement revealed that, as a result of an increase in the “cut score” (the numerical point above or below which a student score indicates proficiency), the number of students exhibiting proficiency based upon the recalculated “cut score” has dropped dramatically. As a result, just over half of New York State students in third through eighth grade have demonstrated proficiency in Math and ELA, as measured by the Spring 2010 State assessments, according to the newly-released State Education Department figures.
According to Commissioner Steiner, the State Education Department has made it harder to pass the tests since too many students were being deemed proficient even though they did not have the proper skills. "We can work together to meet the demands that this new global economy and national economy place in front of us, but we cannot do so when the very instruments we use to measure performance are not accurate," Commissioner Steiner said.
Commissioner Steiner stated that the State exam results have been skewed for years because they were too narrow and predictable. He emphasized that the blame should not fall on teachers, and that the Education Department needs to transform itself to better serve students. According to the Commissioner, future tests will become longer and will test a wider range of skills. He promised that they will be more difficult to predict, will ask more open-ended questions, and there will include more writing.
Chancellor Tisch was quoted in the media as encouraging teachers and parents to greet the news “not with disappointment and not with anger.” What has changed,” she said, “is that we are setting the bar higher. The same score that got you over the line last year is no longer enough to clear the bar today. We are finally providing a clear and honest answer to the public to the question ‘How are our children really doing?’”
Predictably, ELA and Math scores for Rhinebeck students dipped as well, though solely as a result of the State Education Department’s use of the “cut score” to determine proficiency that was markedly higher than the “cut score” that SED had set in prior years. In fact, the District’s analysis indicates that Rhinebeck students continued to make academic progress over the prior years and would have met and, in most cases, exceeded their scores from 2008-09, had the State Education Department applied the same “cut score” as in the prior year. However, in response to their concern that State tests were inadequate and that scores did not indicate an acceptable level of proficiency, State Education Department officials decided to employ a higher “cut score” than in 2008-09. The Math and ELA results posted by Rhinebeck students for 2009-10, 2008-09, and 2007-08 are listed in the file below.
Not surprisingly, some students who had achieved proficiency (i.e. level 3 (“meets proficiency standard”) or level 4 (“exceeds proficiency standard”) in prior years under the State’s previous proficiency standard may now be categorized as “not proficient” and in need of additional assistance to reach or exceed the State standards, as a result of the State Education Department’s score adjustment.
State Education Department officials indicate that they will provide the assessment scores for each individual student to school districts sometime later in August, as they do each year. As usual, we will be mail these assessment score reports to parents as soon as possible after we receive them. Please feel free to contact your child’s building principal or guidance counselor wit any questions you might have, either before or after the individual student assessment scores are mailed home.
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