NY math scores fall short on national exam
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On the front page of today’s New York Times comes the news that New York State’s 4th-graders did not fare as well on the federal math exams as they did the last time they were tested in 2007; 8th-graders scored only slightly higher than in the past.
We don’t yet know how New York City students scored on the National Assessment of Educational Progress test, which is given to a sampling of students every two years, but critics are already comparing the rather dismal statewide results to the much-heralded NYC gains on 2009 state tests and renewing their charge that the state exams are simply too easy.
GothamSchools covers the story, and asks, “If the state tests are easier, how did they get that way?”
Meanwhile, Merryl Tisch, chancellor of the New York Board of Regents, reiterated her vow to raise standards on the state math exams. Both the math and ELA exams will be given later than in previous years. According to the State Education Department calendar, the ELA exams are scheduled for late April; math tests will be given in May.
Has math test prep begun at your school?
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Blame Everyday Math!
Comment by D — October 17, 2009 @ 8:09 pm
Blame Everyday Math? Oh yes, of course… who needs to use math EVERY day - once in a while, you know, theoretical, conceptual math will be MUCH better…sheesh
Comment by Brooklyn Family — October 21, 2009 @ 10:43 am
I believe commenter #1 was indicting “Everyday Math,” the name of the math curriculum used by many City schools. We need to be careful about this because the new statistics are for NY State as a whole, not just NYC. Personally, I would place more blame on the increasing reliance on standardized tests. It has created a teach-to-the-test focus in both ELA subjects and math. If the speculation that NY State tests have become easier in recent years is true, then teaching to the test has reduced the difficulty of the math curriculum as a whole. Hopefully it will help a bit that this year the state test has been moved closer to the end of the year, and thus will require knowledge in a broader range of math topics for each grade. However, making these tests such an important determinant of school administrators’ and teachers’ job security and compensation can only hurt our kids.
Comment by a parent — October 21, 2009 @ 10:53 am
To commenter #3:
Do you work for the UFT? Your comments sound like they were copied from a union stump speech. I suppose you are arguing we should go back to the old system of just not measuring academic performance at all. That way everyone would be happy until the kids have to take the SAT (a standardized test) and don’t get into any school of their choice because they score so poorly.
Give me a break. Standardized tests are part of life and a key pathway to academic and financial success in the US. Like it or not, that is just the plain truth.
For the life of me, I can’t understand the militant resistance to measuring performance of our teachers and administrators. Somehow you argue that measuring performance “hurts” our kids. Further I argue that if teachers had less job security (like in most charter schools) performance would actually be better because they would actually care about the academic results of their work. As it stands right now, in NYC, standardized test scores are not used to determine classroom teachers’ pay in or tenure status in over 80% of our schools. There is a very limited project in about 200 (out of 1100) schools where the entire school is rewarded for higher test scores (not individual teachers) so your argument is patently false.
Comment by Kent Strong — October 21, 2009 @ 12:39 pm