Schools
RVC Schools: Shame on State for Forcing Tests
Assistant superintendent says district disappointed that failure was predicted.
Written by Pam Robinson
A Rockville Centre Schools assistant superintendent had strong words for the state education department after standardized test scores released last week showed a large decline in the number of students deemed proficient in math and English.
Statewide, just 31 percent of students met or exceeded proficiency standards on tests taken in April by students in third to eighth grades. Last year, 55 percent of students were deemed proficient in English and 65 percent in math. (RVC results attached to this story.)
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A drop in scores was expected, New York State's Education Department noted in a press release. The tests were overhauled to reflect the new Common Core Learning Standards, which were adopted in 2010 by the state's Board of Regents. Due to the change, the share of students deemed "proficient" dropped notably.
“We were obviously disappointed in the fact that the state told us there would be a 30 percent drop in scores, and that’s exactly what they went and did,” said Chris Pellettieri, assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction. “The state knew the majority of kids would fail, yet they forced us to give these tests anyway. If I had done that when I was teaching, shame on me for doing that to my class. They went ahead and did it to every kid grades 3 to 8 in the entire state.”
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Pellettieri went on to say the tests aren’t helpful to the district.
“This data is uninterpretable. The state tells us not to use it for assessing kids and teachers. If that’s the case why do we have it?” he said. “The state says our kids are not college and career ready because they got a 1 or 2 on the ELA test in grade 3. You know what, they’re right — the kids are not college and career ready. They don’t need to be, what they need to be ready for is fourth grade.”
The state education said:
31.1 percent of grade 3 to 8 students across the state met or exceeded the ELA proficiency standard; 31% met or exceeded the math proficiency standard
The ELA proficiency results for race/ethnicity groups across grades 3 to 8 reveal the persistence of the achievement gap: only 16.1 percent of African-American students and 17.7 percent of Hispanic students met or exceeded the proficiency standard
3.2 percent of English Language Learners (ELLs) in grades 3 to 8 met or exceeded the ELA proficiency standard; 9.8 percent of ELLs met or exceeded the math proficiency standard
5 percent of students with disabilities met or exceeded the ELA proficiency standard; 7 percent of students with disabilities met or exceeded the math proficiency standard
Additional reporting by Stephen J. Bronner and Tom Auchterlonie
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