Excerpt from the NYSED press release on the changing of exam "proficiency" cut off scores:
As a result of raising the bar for what it means to be proficient, many fewer students met or exceeded the new Mathematics and English Proficiency standards in 2010 than in previous years. Across Grades 3-8 statewide, the majority of students, 53% in English and 61% in Math, met or exceeded the new Proficiency standards this year. By contrast, in 2009, 77% of students met or exceeded standards in English and 86% of students did so in Math.
On one hand, this seems to be a necessary step to make statewide assessments more meaningful. If the standards were set improperly it is good to correct them.
At the same time it seems misguided to expect that "raising the bar" will somehow cause improved achievement. How will this more meaningful information be put to use...
Ensuring that student achievement information provides meaningful information about student progress is just one element of the Regents' broader reform agenda. The State Education Department is working to enable educators and parents to make the most of that information - for example, by developing statewide curriculum models aligned with college and career-readiness standards, and by implementing a teacher and principal evaluation system that will provide differentiated professional development.
Oh.
There is a webcast of the July 28 news conference and here is a slide presentation and links to the data.
For your convenience here is pdf version of the assessment data for schools in the Newburgh School District. Of the 95 "Out of district placement" students, only one student on one exam scored at level 3 or 4.
Additional commentary on this topic at NYSSBA, Jerry Moore, EdVANTAGE, and recordonline.
What Is NECSD hiding?
The NECSD website has made no mention or no link to these adjusted numbers. This appears to be a common practice; to use the website for PR and "good news" rather then the nuts and bolts of accountabiloity and public access to public information.
In all these years the district has failed to post the state exam and state report card for each of the schools; including the status of the In Need schools. What is the district afraid of? What does it appear to hide?... Possibly this district's dismall scores and continuious lag behind behind other similar districts.
By the way, what about the district's new contractual agreement with it's staff? What does the new language say? What increases are their in salary and benefits? Did the district get staff to contribute more toward health insurance premiums? Another example of this district's failure to keep the tax paying public informed.
Test Scores
I notice that the Temple Hill Academy Scores show an overall drop. The school showed an upward trend for several years. What happened this year?