Quote:

In the second year of more rigorous testing in grades four and eight, schools across New York state hit a speed bump on the road to higher standards.

--New York State United Teachers Union, October 21, 2000

So much for the speed bump theory of non-improvement.

For the first time ever on any standardized national or state exam, S-G dropped into the ranks of the below average.  Any parent paying attention to the goings-on at S-G knew this was bound to happen.  On the 8th Grade ELA, 45% of NY schools have higher means and 58% have higher percentages of students scoring excellent.  When you look at our poverty rates and the abilities of students coming into the school district, S-G is seriously underperforming compared to other schools with significantly more challenges.  Yet we spend $11,650 per student.  There is no excuse for the kind of performance this school provides for the money we spend.  No superintendent in the Capital Region gets worse results for the amount of money we spend and the quality of our students than Mike Marcelle.  He must be fired.

* Note: S-G eighth graders who take 8th grade math in 7th grade--about 10% of the class-- do not take the 8th grade math exam until the 8th grade.

In addition to showing S-G's performance on state exams, the table above permits a comparison of the performance of 8th graders in 2003 with their 1999 4th grade performance.  36% and 11% of these students scored in the top level of math and English, respectively, in the 4th grade.  By 8th grade, the percentage of top performers crashed to 12% in math and 4% in English.  In other words, by 8th grade three-quarters of our best English students and two-thirds of our best math students had been normalized.  37 of 41 other schools in our area do a better job of retaining students in the top level of performance in 8th grade English exams and 28 do a better job in math.