Yesterday, the New York State Education Department (NYSED) released grade 3-8 math and english test results. The press release reports that test proficiency “cut scores” have been raised, highlighting efforts to align the state with the Obama education agenda. The result is an increase in the number of students labeled as failures. No evidence exists that such efforts serve to improve education.
State imposes failure, offers no plan for school leaders
According to the press release: "New, higher cut scores have resulted in fewer students scoring at a ‘Proficient level’," said Commissioner Steiner. "While that is sobering news, it should cause all of us – the State Education Department, schools, administrators, teachers, and parents – to work ever more effectively together to ensure that all children in New York State get the knowledge and skills they need."
In a press release yesterday Statewide Superintendents Council Executive Director Robert Reidy said: “Commissioner Steiner and the Regents are setting higher expectations for schools and students. Superintendents endorse that goal...But much more needs to be done to achieve the goal than merely changing the passing scores on elementary and middle school tests.”
“Most importantly,” Reidy said, “the state needs to give schools a clear sense of the ultimate goal we should aim for – what should students know and be able to do when they graduate from high school. The 3 through 8 tests are just one part of a system that needs to work together to help schools lead students to that goal.”
What both press releases fail to point out is that as a result of reduced proficiency rates, more schools will be increasingly subject to a host of interventions required by existing federal law (the so-called No Child Left Behind Act). These initiatives have been widely recognized as ineffective. In particular, lowered test scores will be used to further promote charter schools. While some charters are effective, increasingly they are run by for-profit and pseudo non-profit entities mired in fraud and corruption (also see this). Note that State Education Deputy Commissioner John King is former executive of the Uncommon Schools charter school network.
Federal education policy at the root of arbitrary testing
NYSED and federal officials refuse to contend with the arbitrary nature of “proficiency levels” and “cut scores”. For decades, researchers have known that marking one student as “proficient” and another as “not proficient” based on a raw score from a single test cannot be defended on scientific grounds. As Sherman Dorn, an education policy expert, observed: “[C]ut scores are set arbitrarily, and there is no way to avoid that fact. What we know is that someone who scores at a ‘proficient’ level on NAEP is scoring higher than someone in the ‘basic' band. That's all we know from those labels.” Setting state proficiency levels based on NAEP data does nothing to solve this problem. Importantly, Dorn notes that, “NAEP labels and cut-scores are serving a purely performative act, to stigmatize states for their political response to NCLB,” where states lowered their standards to increase pass rates and avoid the stigma and challenge of federal sanction. So, in the latest round of posturing, the state is simply changing pass rates in order to win the Race to the Top (RTTT) competition (see Winerip's New York Times article for other effects of RTTT). As the Post-Standard in Syracuse editorialized, “Today’s tough-love announcement might help the state in that regard, but it is unlikely to help schools, children or parents.”
Key facts ignored by NYSED and Washington
One of the most consistent findings of educational researchers over the last fifty years is the strong relationship between a student’s social circumstances and educational outcomes. The popular idea that children living in poverty receive a low-level education because of the “low expectations” of teachers and school administrators is a diversion from the harsh reality of drastically increasing social inequality across the country. For example, recent data reveals a four-fold increase in the wealth gap between Whites and African Americans. Buffalo has the third highest level of poverty in the U.S., using the relatively conservative measures adopted by the U.S. Census Bureau. Children living in poverty have nutritional deficiencies, lack access to quality healthcare, are exposed to more environmental toxins (including lead poisoning, known to dramatically affect school performance), and have less access to the kind of socialization that contributes to children entering school ready to learn. No amount of “no excuses” rhetoric and punitive testing can erase the violence of poverty. Interestingly, civil rights groups are now challenging the Obama administration.
Select math and ELA results
Nearly 15 percent of grade 3 students at Frederick Olmsted #64, recognized as a feeder for City Honors, did not meet the new proficiency standard in English Language Arts (ELA). More than 8 percent of grade 8 students at City Honors did not meet the proficiency score for math; keep in mind that City Honors is a selective admission school, with tests of academic achievement figuring heavily in the admissions process; it is a school consistently ranked as one of the best in the country. As another example, less than 20 percent of grade 8 students at Waterfront School scored proficient or above for ELA. Across Buffalo, for third grade ELA, Tapestry Charter School had the highest number of students testing at or above “proficient”, and Harriet Ross Tubman Academy had the fewest students testing at or above “proficient”.
Test results by all districts and schools, by grade and school type, can be found here.
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