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Mostly Cloudy Long Beach schools test scores drop
School officials: results will be examined ‘very closely’
Though there were a few bright spots among the results of standardized tests released by the New York State Education Department in August, for the most part, Long Beach students scored lower on the English Language Arts and math proficiency exams in 2010-11 than in 2009-10.
In all but four categories — fifth-grade ELA and fifth-, seventh- and eighth-grade math, where there were improvements in scores — the percentage of district students who scored at levels 3 and 4 on the statewide exams dropped. Students with those scores are judged to have met or exceeded state standards, while those who score at levels 1 and 2 are deemed to be in need of academic intervention, explained Dr. Vincent Butera, the district’s assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction.
Butera said that the drop in last year’s scores was attributable in part to changes made by the state. It increased the “cut scores” — the raw scores that define each of the four levels of proficiency, or lack of it — and made the exams more complex as well, he said, with the goal of better preparing students for higher education.
“It’s very difficult, it’s impossible, to make comparisons,” Butera said. “The state has made it a priority to increase the rigor of the exams. The exams, in some cases, were longer, and more questions were asked. In some cases, the passages were more difficult in terms of vocabulary. Overall, the exams were more difficult.”
Despite some increases in scores, the percentages of Long Beach students who met or exceeded the state standards were below the county average for all grades in which the exams are administered — three through eight.
Schools Superintendent David Weiss said that the areas where students scored lower were “major concerns,” but he noted that student progress is difficult to measure because of the changing nature of the exams.
“We can’t draw any conclusions in terms of progress from this set of exams until they stabilize,” Weiss said. “Stable exams the state gives, for example, would be a Living Environment Regents. That’s been the same for the past three years.”
