SED Commissioner Alerts Districts on Test Scores

With the New York State Education Department poised to release state assessment scores this week for 2012/13 in English language arts and math for students in grades 3-8, officials are alerting school districts from Buffalo to Montauk to be aware that the scores are expected to be markedly lower than the results from a year earlier.

“This change in scores, which will effectively create a new baseline measurement of student learning, is largely the result of the shift to assessments that measure the Common Core Learning

Standards, which more accurately reflect students’ progress toward college and career readiness,” SED Commissioner John B. King wrote in an August 2 memo to all district and BOCES superintendents.

The scores will be used in evaluating teachers and administrators and assigning them scores related to the state’s annual professional performance review of all educators. The expected significant drop in scores across the state has thrown a proverbial “monkey-wrench” into the evaluation process.

“Because the state provided growth scores to be used in teacher and principal evaluations are based on year-to-year comparisons for similar students, all of whom took New York’s

Common Core assessments for the first time in 2012/13, these growth scores will result in similar proportions of educators earning each rating category (highly effective, effective, developing and ineffective) in 2012/13 compared to 2011/12 on the state sub-component rating category,” Dr. King wrote. “New York’s state-provided growth scores will not identify a larger proportion of teachers and principals at lower rating categories in their growth scores as a result of the anticipated lower student proficiency levels.”

Earlier this summer, the Huntington School Board voted 7-0 to adopt a resolution calling upon Dr. King and the New York State Board of Regents to “stop the overreliance on standardized tests as a measure of student performance and principal/teacher effectiveness.”

Trustees weighed in on the resolution at a July 2 public meeting and were unanimous in their opposition to excessive state testing. “While the implementation of the Common Core will ultimately help students, teachers and teaching and learning, the growing reliance on and misalignment of standardized testing is eroding student learning time and narrowing the curriculum and jeopardizing the rich, meaningful education our students need and deserve,” stated the resolution.

The resolution noted that “despite the fact that research recommends the use of multiple measures to gauge student performance and teacher effectiveness, the state’s growing reliance on standardized testing is adversely affecting students across all spectrums, the morale of our educators and further draining already scarce resources.”

Huntington School District officials believe that students are making solid academic progress and like their counterparts across the state are bemoaning these new test results that will do little but confuse the public and lead some to believe that achievement levels are in reality falling, when they are not.

Huntington trustees stood together on July 2 in declaring “the federal elementary and secondary education act’s testing policies fail to appropriately accommodate the unique needs of students with disabilities and English language learners in assessing their learning, resulting in test scores that do not accurately represent a true measure of the contributions of teachers and schools. It is time for policymakers to recalibrate the number, duration and appropriate use of standardized tests so that we can refocus our efforts on student learning.”