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.

Eighth-grade test scores disappointing

State to change regulations, target middle-school English

ALBANY - For the fifth year in a row, elementary English test scores have improved markedly while middle school performance has languished, according to the latest test results released by the state Education Department.

The Board of Regents will address the persistently poor middle school test results in February by overhauling for the first time since 1989 the regulations that govern middle schools, said state Education Commissioner Richard Mills.

School officials said they hope the new regulations will free them from some curriculum requirements, such as technology, home careers and foreign languages, which they say are a distraction from math and English.

Mills called this year's eighth-grade English Language Arts results "a disappointment," and said schools must embrace effective techniques. Mills said the state will be more aggressive in promoting lessons learned from successful schools, such as requiring students to read at least 25 books each year, emphasizing reading and writing in all topics, and setting clear goals.

The English test results, released for each school in the state, are broken down into four levels of achievement. Students performing at level one can barely read and write," while students at level four exceed state standards.

In the five years the state has tracked results, there has been virtually no change in middle school English performance.

In 1999, 9.4 percent of eighth-grade students scored at level one. In the intervening years, that has risen as high as 13.6 percent and fallen as low as 7.2 percent. But this year, it returned almost to the starting point, to 9.2 percent.

Likewise, 8.6 percent of eighth-grade students exceeded state standards in 1999, and, while the number had risen slightly in subsequent years, this year it fell to 7.7 percent.

Middle school math performance has also been a sore spot, with noticeable improvements in math scores for the first time only last year.

Elementary schools fared far better.

Since 1999, fourth-grade students scoring at level one have steadily declined, from 11.4 percent to 5.8 percent this year. The number of students exceeding state standards increased from 5.1 percent to 21.9 percent in the same time period.

Locally, school performance varied by district but tended to mirror the trend of improved scores in fourth grade, and little change in eighth grade.

Falco proud
Schenectady Superintendent John Falco said he is proud of the results of the district's effort to reduce the number of elementary students scoring at the bottom level. That number has dropped from 13 percent in 1999 to 7.9 percent this year.

Within five years, the fourth-grade students meeting or exceeding state standards has risen from 40 percent to 47.4 percent, as compared to 64.3 percent statewide and 44.3 percent in large cities.

The International Charter School of Schenectady, now in its first year, posted mixed results on the fourth-grade English exam. While 46.7 percent of students met or exceeded state standards, a result on par with the city, 16.7 percent scored at level one, more than any city elementary school.

But the Schenectady middle schools have shown little progress, with performance poorer than the statewide average. The number of students scoring in the lowest level rose from 15 percent in 1999 to 20.7 this year. Students meeting or exceeding the standards went from 30 percent to 27.3 percent in the same time period.

Mills said one explanation for the poor eighth-grade scores statewide may be that more students than ever before, predominantly special education students, are taking the exam. This year the state ended a waiver that allowed special education students to take an alternate exam.

School officials offered a similar explanation and said more must be done to improve the performance of special education students.

"I'm going to have to become an expert in special education," said Tom Della Salla, the Schenectady English coordinator. "We have to look at our special education students and why they're not succeeding."

Of 109 special education students in the three Schenectady middle schools, only one scored high enough to meet state standards.

Results from individual schools can be found at www.emsc.nysed.gov/irts.

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Albany -- Concern focuses on falling scores in middle school English

By RICK KARLIN, Times Union Staff writer

With middle school English test results on the decline since 1999, the state Board of Regents is planning a crackdown that could include making students spend more time on reading and writing.

"It's not a good picture," state Education Commissioner Richard Mills said Tuesday, alluding to a continuing drop in the percentage of middle school students who passed the annual statewide English exam.

In 1999, 48 percent passed, compared with 45 percent this year. Thanks to a demographic bulge, 22,691 more students took the test this year than in 1999, bringing the total number of test takers to 212,519.

Regardless, the long-term drop in scores remains a trouble spot amid a push to raise test scores, said Mills. The drop-off is even more vexing considering that results on another landmark English test, given in fourth grade, have improved over the same period.

Middle school achievement has long been a trouble spot, and the Regents and state Education Department are compiling a list of high-performing middle schools to serve as models.

Additionally, Mills said, the Regents plan to issue new regulations by next year to improve learning standards in the middle grades.

He wouldn't go into details, but Mills said Regents members, who set education policy in the state, will be looking at a number of changes possibly including more classroom time for students who are lagging. Additionally, they may rethink the breadth of electives available to middle school students.

"That is one of the questions that's certainly going to have to be answered," said Mills on the electives issue.

Critics have over the years wondered if some students might be better served by a curriculum that focuses more on the basics of math and English.

In contrast to the middle grades, 64 percent of fourth-graders passed this year, up from 48 percent in 1999. Additionally, the gap between white and minority students has narrowed during that time.

Urban elementary schools, including those in Albany, have improved their scores, following intensive efforts at improving literacy in the early grades.

At Arbor Hill elementary school in Albany, for instance, 40 percent of the fourth-graders passed this year's fourth-grade exam compared with 37 percent last year. "We're very heartened," said Eva Joseph, Albany's interim superintendent.

At New Covenant Charter School, 40 percent passed, compared with 15 percent last year.

There also are a few bright spots in the middle schools.

Among large cities, Syracuse schools managed to raise eighth-grade scores, and in the Capital Region, Schuylerville saw 68 percent of its students pass this year compared to 44 percent in 2002. Their mean, or average, score rose from 700 to 710 on a scale of 400-800.

Schuylerville Superintendent Leon Reed said the district adopted a number of strategies to raise scores. Students who were falling behind got extra help at the end of the school day rather than during the day, which meant that they didn't have to sacrifice their usual time in class. The district also set up a 5 p.m. bus to get those kids home, and expanded summer school.

"There are a couple of things we've done in recent years," said Reed, who added: "I don't think there is any magic elixir."

Even small measures, such as changing the location for the tests, were instituted. Schuylerville's eighth-graders this year took their exam in classrooms, as opposed to when they were herded into the large, noisy cafeteria. "What we were trying to do was have a comfortable nondistracting atmosphere," Reed said.

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City English Scores Show Marked Gain

New York City public school students posted sharp gains on the state's standardized reading and writing test this year, with striking double-digit jumps in some of the city's poorest and historically lowest-performing school districts.

The city's strong results, particularly among fourth graders in places like District 14 in Williamsburg, Brooklyn; District 5 in Harlem; and District 12 in the Bronx, reflect a pattern of improved scores among black and Hispanic pupils statewide.

In both the city and the state, black and Hispanic fourth graders significantly narrowed the gap with white and Asian students.

Statewide, fourth graders posted solid but more modest gains than in New York City. Eighth graders made only negligible progress, as the proportion meeting state standards was substantially lower than in 1999, when the exam was first given. The results were announced yesterday in Albany by the state education commissioner, Richard P. Mills.

The city's positive results come at a time when Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and his schools chancellor, Joel I. Klein, are trying to overhaul the public school system and impose a uniform reading and math curriculum at all but the highest performing schools.

City officials, who might otherwise have been jubilant about yesterday's results, offered a muted reaction, saying that the gains were not broad enough and that the school system as a whole was still failing at least half the city's children.

Citywide, the number of fourth graders at or above grade level jumped to 52.5 percent, up six percentage points from last year. The proportion of eighth graders meeting standards rose 3.1 points to 32.6 percent from 29.5 percent last year, but still lower than 35.3 percent in 1999.

"Although we are pointed in the right direction, there is still a lot of work that needs to get done," said a deputy schools chancellor, Diana Lam. "Even with these gains, we have one out of two students that are not fluent readers at the fourth-grade level."

Experts said the sharp increase in test scores could prove problematic for Mr. Bloomberg and Mr. Klein, since it is too early for them to take credit and sets a benchmark for next year that may be hard to match.

The higher scores, particularly at schools that have showed sustained increases since 1999, also gave new ammunition to critics of Mr. Bloomberg's changes, who said that they might do more harm than good by disrupting existing programs.

"While the governance of the system has been in turmoil and the administration of the Department of Education has been finding its way, teachers have been doing their jobs," said the president of the teachers' union, Randi Weingarten, in a prepared statement.

Later, in an interview, Ms. Weingarten specifically pointed to significant improvements in the Chancellor's District, created in 1996 by Chancellor Rudy Crew to give focused attention to the worst-performing schools. Harold O. Levy, who took over as chancellor from 2000 to 2002, continued Mr. Crew's program, she said. "What's happened in the last three or four years is a result of a lot of Chancellor Crew and Chancellor Levy's work and the fact that the mayor last year allowed Chancellor Levy to continue that work," she said.

Norm Fruchter, director of the Institute for Education and Social Policy at New York University, also attributed the jump to Mr. Klein's predecessors. "I always thought that Crew had set a bunch of long-term goals that would bear fruit," Mr. Fruchter said.

Ms. Lam, who is now the city's top instructional leader, said she was trying to be realistic and not a killjoy. "We don't want to take away from the celebration that scores have moved in the right direction," she said. But, she added: "We wouldn't want our children to be in the 50 percent that aren't making grade."

Chancellor Klein, after testifying at a City Council budget hearing yesterday, said: "These test score results indicate that the city is performing well, is outperforming the state significantly, and I think that is a positive development. At the same time, I think we have to realize that still there's a long road ahead of us. A lot of our children are still not performing in the way I know they can perform."

Councilwoman Eva S. Moskowitz, chairwoman of the Council Education Committee, was also not ready to celebrate. "We have a long way to go before we crack open the Champagne," she said. "We have a system that is failing miserably, and this is a slight uptick and that's great." She added, "Until we see multiyear improvements, I wouldn't put too much stake either way in what this means."

Statewide, results on the fourth-grade test have improved steadily since 1999. This year the number of black fourth graders meeting state standards rose 6.4 percentage points from last year while the number of Hispanic fourth graders meeting standards rose 5.2 points. Among white students, the percentage meeting standards rose 0.7 points. Among Asians, the increase was 3.8 points. In New York City, the overall increase was 6 points for fourth graders. A substantial performance gap remains among eighth graders.

Over all, 64.3 percent of fourth graders met state standards in English this year, up 2.8 percentage points from 61.5 percent last year and well above the 48.1 percent that met the standards in 1999. By contrast, just 45.3 percent of eighth graders met the English standards, up 1 point from last year but down 2.8 points from 48.1 percent in 1999.

Mr. Mills expressed consternation with the eighth-grade results and suggested that the state faced a crisis in its middle schools, where students can be set on a path to college or fated to drop out in high school. "If you look at the entire five years since 1999, performance has not improved in the middle grades," he said. The state was planning to set new standards for middle schools, he said.

Among the state's large cities, Yonkers was praised by Mr. Mills for outperforming other large districts, but he expressed extreme concern about Buffalo, which has struggled with low scores.

Merryl H. Tisch, a member of the Board of Regents, credited Commissioner Mills with setting higher goals for the state's children.

"There is something to be said for the commissioner here having stood the test," she said. "This shows all the naysayers that these kids are capable, that teachers can be competently prepared, and at the end of the day you can have good results."

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City schools strongly criticized

State education chief fears Buffalo is falling far behind

By PETER SIMON
Buffalo News Staff Reporter
5/21/2003

Even though the comments were made at a press conference announcing statewide test score results, State Education Commissioner Richard P. Mills singled out Buffalo in his criticism.

He cited the city school system for its longtime financial management troubles, saying it has failed to learn from schools that have gotten better academic results, and urged the city schools to work more closely with area colleges and cultural institutions.

"Buffalo is disappointing," Mills said. "I'm very concerned about Buffalo. Buffalo is in danger of losing contact with the field."

The comments were considered especially significant because Mills, the architect of the state's educational reform effort, normally has a diplomatic public demeanor and seldom expresses concerns about individual districts in public forums. In addition, he has supported the reform efforts of Superintendent Marion Canedo and the Board of Education.

Both Canedo and Jack Coyle, the board president, said Buffalo is on the verge of major improvements in student achievement despite massive layoffs, program cuts and big class sizes.

"The results are flat so far, and it's disappointing because everything is in place for double-digit improvements," Canedo said. "I can almost guarantee you that we'll see some improvement in the next round of assessments."

Mills' initial comments were based on standardized test score results released Tuesday showing that:

• Just 33.9 percent of Buffalo's fourth-graders this year scored at grade level or above on the state's English assessment test. That compares to a state average of 64.3 percent, and an Erie County average of 64.4 percent. In addition, Buffalo's success rate is substantially below those of Rochester, Syracuse, Yonkers and New York City.

• Just 22 percent of Buffalo's eighth-graders scored at grade level, ranking Buffalo ahead of only Rochester among New York's "Big Five" cities. In 9 of 43 Buffalo schools, less than one of every ten eighth-graders tested at grade level.

• Buffalo's fourth-grade passing rate increased from 29.1 percent to 33.9 in the five years the assessment has been given. In contrast, the percentage of students scoring at grade level jumped from 33.6 to 63.6 percent in Yonkers, and from 32.7 percent to 52.5 percent in New York City.

Mills praised the other four big city school districts, and expressed disappointment only in Buffalo.

Coyle, who had a lengthy phone conversation with Mills before the press conference, said the board will attempt to "get more direct answers" from district staff and focus almost exclusively on student achievement.

"It dismays me that we're losing touch - as he puts it - and it's disheartening any time you don't show improvement," Coyle said. "We know what we have to do and we know what works, but we don't have the financial ability to do that as quickly as we'd like."

Canedo said the district adopted a new elementary school reading program this year that should begin to produce results in the fall, has done extensive teacher training, is revamping its financial management, is reviewing the performance of individual students on a quarterly basis and has followed a reform plan crafted with the state to the letter.

Canedo said budget cuts have forced her to lay off 500 teachers the past two years, cut programs and raise class sizes. About 400 more teacher layoffs are expected next school year.

"We've had a lot of turmoil," she said. "That's what we've been doing for the last three years - laying people off, raising class sizes and still trying to take a look at the whole system."

Mills said the state will "take another look" at its performance agreement with the Buffalo schools, which spells out the district's efforts to improve student performance, and the state's commitment to help. Mills said he wants to make sure both sides are doing their part.

In addition, he mentioned Buffalo's "long history of near misses (and) late reporting" in state aid filings and financial reports. The most recent incident nearly delayed $35 million in state aid, and led to a report from the Council of Great City Schools recommending an overhaul of the district's financial operations.

"That's been a long-time pattern," Mills said. "I know the board out there wants to correct it."

Mills also said Buffalo should learn more from schools that have shown academic improvement, and partner more extensively with museums, libraries and colleges.

"It's a college town," Mills said. "There are a lot of resources there. The resources need to be pulled together."

Coyle said Buffalo has probably had deeper financial woes than any other urban district in the state, and questioned the fairness of comparing it to school systems that have made fewer cuts.

"I don't know how many districts in the state have students with the level of need our students have, and class sizes near 30," he said. "We're a dependent school district (which cannot levy property taxes) and do our best with what we have."

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Little gain seen in eighth-grade test scores

By PETER SIMON
Buffalo News Staff Reporter
5/21/2003

Schools see rise in math scores Albany -- Officials say results show progress in efforts to meet standards; despite gains by minorities, racial achievement gap called top concern

By BRIAN NEARING, Times Union Staff writer First published: Wednesday, October 22, 2003

More elementary and middle school students met tougher state standards in mathematics, although nearly half of New York's eighth-graders still fell short, according to standardized test scores released Tuesday by the state Education Department. Those scores, based on exams given to more than 435,000 students during the last school year, showed more than 78 percent of fourth-graders met or exceeded standards, up from about 68 percent the year before.

Eighth-graders gained ground for the second consecutive year, with about 51 percent meeting standards, marking the first time a majority had met the goals.

"I'm encouraged by what is happening in the elementary schools," said Commissioner Richard Mills at a morning news conference at the State Education Building. "When these students get to eighth grade, we should see even stronger gains."

In the Capital Region, suburban districts, with more affluent households, again tested significantly higher than urban schools. The eighth-grade math test was too much for nearly all the students at the New Covenant Charter School in Albany's Arbor Hill.

More than 98 percent of New Covenant's predominantly minority students failed to meet the state standard, the lowest ranking in the Capital Region and among the lowest in the state.

Principal Dave Burnham, a former school superintendent in Greenville who took over the charter school in October, called the test results "disgusting."

He said the school wasn't prepared when it opened its eighth grade in 2002. "We are going to have to take a hard look at what happened. We have a lot further to go. We have 18 new staff members this year, and we have to buckle down and teach our kids what they need to know."

In the Albany City School District's 12 regular elementary schools, 10 met or exceeded state standards for the math test. Scoring below state standards were School 26, which was closed last year, and Philip Schuyler.

Average scores at the district's two middle schools were below the state standards. About a quarter of eighth-grade students at Hackett and Livingston Magnet Academy met or exceeded the standards.

Superintendent Michael Johnson said he was encouraged by the elementary scores, which showed math skills rising. About two-thirds of Albany fourth-graders met or exceeded state standards last year, up from about half four years ago, he said.

For now, said Johnson, he is studying whether summer school should be expanded to include middle school students who get passing grades but don't meet state standards.

"Maybe someone who is (close to the standard) could benefit more from a six-week summer school experience than someone who is at Level 1," he said.

Scoring at Level 1 indicates students are at risk of not being able to meet state standards for graduation. The highest scores are Level 4.

In the biggest cities outside of New York City (Rochester, Yonkers, Buffalo and Syracuse), the passing rate rose from a low of 44 percent in 2000 to 62 percent in 2003. The passing rate among black students rose from 39 percent to 62 percent.

Mills said he was encouraged by a fifth consecutive decline in the percentage of students scoring at the lowest level, showing schools were lifting the lowest achievers and bringing them closer to success.

In 2001, Mills told school officials to focus on the middle grades after several years of stagnant eighth-grade test scores. The state Board of Regents made improving middle school education a priority.

Rising scores last year from black and other minority students also show that an "achievement gap" with white and Asian students, though still broad, is narrowing, Mills said.

About two-thirds of white and Asian eighth-graders last year met or exceeded state standards, up from about 50 percent and 59 percent in 1999.

While about 26 percent of black eighth-grade students met standards, that was about double the 1999 rate.

Mills noted that the percentage of black middle school students scoring at Level 1 continued to decline, to about 32 percent from more than 56 percent in 1999.

"Closing the achievement gap is the Regents' highest priority," Regents Chancellor Robert M. Bennett said in a prepared statement. "It's great to see so many children improving. ... We know we still have much to do."

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Math Scores Rise Sharply Across State

 By ELISSA GOOTMAN / New York Times

Fourth graders across the state made stunning gains in their math scores last spring, with even sharper increases in New York City.

Eighth-grade math scores showed more modest gains. But for the first time since 1999, when the state introduced its rigorous tests, more than half of eighth graders met math standards.

The true meaning of these results, however, remained a point of debate yesterday. Some experts raised questions about the reliability of the tests, given the magnitude of the increases and the state's recent history with flawed exams. But others, including the state's commissioner of education, Richard P. Mills, cheered the news.

"What we're seeing is significant improvement," Mr. Mills said. "New York City has gone up and up and up."

In the city, news of the gains, which were particularly pronounced in the Bronx and in some of the poorest-performing districts, elicited cheers among teachers and principals. But not everyone greeted the news so enthusiastically.

The suggestion that city schools are on the upswing put Chancellor Joel I. Klein, who is overhauling them, in a tricky position. While the chancellor's critics pounced upon the higher scores as evidence that the school system did not need such an overhaul, some of his allies acknowledged that he would now be under even more pressure to show gains next spring.

Mr. Klein's reaction to the good news was muted, as it was to news of higher reading scores in the spring.

"While I am gratified by the test results released today for fourth and eighth graders in New York City, I must emphasize that it is hard to tell the true significance of any one set of results in isolation," the chancellor said in a statement. "We must always look at results in comparison over a number of years. Only through comparison can we truly measure the progress we're making."

Eighth grade math scores, while on the rise, remain grim: even after two years of steady growth, only 34.4 percent of eighth graders in New York City, and 51 percent of eighth graders statewide, met the state's math standards.

Among fourth graders, the improvement this year was particularly striking because it was a large jump after several years of little movement.

Statewide, 78.1 percent of fourth graders passed the math tests, up 10.4 percentage points from the number who passed last year. In New York City, 66.7 percent of fourth graders passed the test, up a staggering 14.7 percentage points from last year.

The city school district that showed the most improvement among fourth graders was District 19 in Brooklyn, where the number passing the math test increased 21.6 percentage points. As a borough, however, the Bronx showed the greatest improvement.

Mr. Klein's predecessor, Harold O. Levy, had made math a priority, and some experts suggested that his changes, some of which were overtaken by Mr. Klein's selection of a new, uniform math curriculum, were behind the gains.

Randi Weingarten, president of the United Federation of Teachers, said she believed the scores represented the fruit of changes made under former Chancellors Levy and Rudy Crew.

"What will happen now that there has been a complete overhaul of that pedagogy, particularly to methods and programs that don't have proven track records?" Ms. Weingarten asked.

Mr. Levy himself was more generous, saying that yesterday's news "bodes well for Chancellor Klein's reforms."

Other experts said the spike in scores raised questions about the test itself.

"I think the high scores on the test are a very favorable outcome, because they will serve as a motivator for future performance," said Alfred S. Posamentier, dean of the School of Education at City College. "However, in all honesty, whenever you have such dramatic change, I would question the reliability of the test and make sure that it really has tested on the same level as its predecessor."

Was there real improvement? Who knows. The test could have been easier. The scoring policy could have changed. The state could have used a new or modified statistical calibration tool. The test may have carried forward more of the same kinds of questions from the previous test. The secrecy of the test may have been compromised. There's just no way to tell. But what is extremely likely is that any improvement wasn't due just to improved learning.

Dr. Posamentier cited his experience as a member of a panel that recently studied the state's Math A Regents exam and released a report citing serious flaws in the way the test was devised and field tested. That test, as well as a state physics exam, had to be rescored.

"After having just gone through the math fiasco, I don't accept any test on face value any more," he said. A spokesman for the State Education Department, Tom Dunn, said the state stood by its test, which was reviewed by testing experts and teachers.

"Everyone has concluded that the test was comparable and the scoring consistent with previous years' scoring," he said. "We're certain that the results are valid and that students are showing real progress."

At a news conference yesterday, Mr. Mills said the schools that had improved the most this year had taken basic measures to bolster their math programs, like teaching math every day and holding after-school sessions. "It's not mysterious in any way," he said.

The gains, he added, may reflect several years of work that finally paid off.

Mr. Mills said he was particularly pleased that while still significant, racial and ethnic achievement gaps were narrowing. This year, the gap between white and black fourth graders who had passed the test was 16.3 percentage points, down from 35.6 percentage points last year.

Mr. Mills said the tests themselves were an impetus for improvement, saying the performance gap "disappears from the public imagination" when it is not measured.

Mr. Klein's office did not criticize the test, but a spokesman, Peter Kerr, cautioned against reading too much into the test results.

"We hope that reasonable people will not overinterpret next year's results, just as we hope they don't overinterpret this year's results," Mr. Kerr said.

Mr. Mills, in the news conference, commended Yonkers, where 75.1 percent of fourth graders met standards, up from 59.2 percent last year.

In Rochester, while fourth-grade scores rose this year, the number of eighth graders who passed the test declined, to 9.5 percent this year from 12.1 percent last year.

Scores are listed on the State Education Department's Web site, at www.emsc.nysed.gov/irts /math2003/home.html.

Scores rose even in high-performing city and suburban districts.

On Long Island, 72.7 percent of Nassau County eighth graders passed the test, up 3 percentage points from last year. In Suffolk County, 65.7 percent of eighth graders passed the test, up 4.6 percentage points from last year. In Westchester County, 63.8 percent of eighth graders passed, up 3.1 percentage points.

Among fourth graders, 94 percent passed in Nassau County, up 6 percentage points; 87.5 percent passed in Suffolk County, up 8.4 percentage points; and 88.4 percent passed in Westchester County, up 7 percentage points.

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