The city is failing its students in both math and reading, shocking new state test data revealed yesterday.
But even though the data showed the number of city students passing the statewide reading and math tests plummeted 39 and 34 percent respectively, education experts saw it as a first step in fixing the education gap.
“We are doing a disservice when we say a child is proficient when a child is not,” said state Regents Chancellor Merryl Tisch. “Nowhere is this more true than among our students who are most in need.”
The dramatic decline — only 42.4 percent of third- through eighth-graders passed this year’s statewide reading exams, compared to 68.8 percent the previous year, and just 54 percent passed the math test compared to 81.8 percent — comes after the state Board of Regents last week decided to overhaul the definition of academic proficiency for public-school students, basically erasing significant gains in scores made by city students in the past few years.
The board decided to raise the score necessary to be rated proficient in each subject after a disturbing study that found even though more students are passing state exams than in years past, many are still unprepared for high school and college.
Mayor Bloomberg and Schools Chancellor Joel Klein painted a rosy picture from the lousy numbers, saying city schools continue to make major progress and students are improving at a better rate than the state average.
“For the parents, I understand there will be some confusion,” Klein said. “Last year, your kid was rated ‘proficient,’ this year she may be rated ‘basic.’ That doesn’t reflect a diminution in our learning. It reflects an increase in the requirements she was put through on the test.”
Meanwhile, the mayor revealed that another 7,000 students would have been required to attend summer school citywide if the city had received the test results earlier.
Some critics said the new standards — which include harder, less predictable tests and the raising of scores needed to earn passing grades — reveal that the city Department of Education’s longtime boasts of raising student proficiency is just an illusion and that its classrooms have become test-prep academies.
“These test results seriously damage the credibility of the DOE and its policies,” said José Gonzalez, a parent leader with the NYC Coalition for Educational Justice.
Statewide, 53 percent of students passed in reading and 61 percent in math. By contrast, in 2009, 77 passed the reading tests statewide and 86 percent did so in math.
The new proficiency standards raise the bar in every grade. While through last year, students at every grade level needed to score a 650 on the tests to be rated proficient in math or reading, eighth-graders this year, for example, needed to score at least 673 in math and 658 in reading.