NY’s performance on national math and reading tests is not
nearly as impressive as on the state’s own tests. In general, half as many
students pass the national tests and the rate of improvement is half that
reported by the state Education
Department.
In a long series of commentaries on NY’s exams, culminating in
"Nine
Commentaries on NY K-12 Exams: Testing to the Results," I have warned
that NY’s academic performance was not increasing as rapidly as claimed in press
releases. Changes in exam content, cutoff scores and scale scores, among
others, created the appearance of improvement, which I estimated to be only
about half the amount advertised. NY’s NAEP results substantially confirm
this.
Although the Education Commissioner, Richard P. Mills, has
championed the standards movement which has somewhat, though far from greatly,
improved academics, he has let his responsibility to lead and motivate public
schools trump his duty to be completely honest and forthcoming about the causes
for rising test scores. While always declaring "we have a long
way to go," he generally attributes rising scores to the hard work of
teachers knowing that other factors are in play, which, if publicly known, would
likely undermine confidence in the results reported. This must stop.
When changes are made to exams, cutoff scores or scale scores, these changes
must be explained in the press releases that report exam results. The
people who pay the bills, students and educators deserve to be told the whole
truth and nothing but the truth.
With a panel of 5 graphs, located here,
I compare NY’s pass rate on state exams to its pass rate on national
exams. The bottom line is that New Yorkers should be especially cautious
in relying on state Education Department data to assess the strength of our
students’ academic abilities and the rates at which they are increasing–if at
all.