EdVANTAGE Blog

Yesterday, the U.S. Education Department released results for the 2009 National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) 4th and 8th grade tests in mathematics.

The results brought renewed questioning of the soundness of the state’s grades 3 through testing program.

The New York Times reports, “New York State’s fourth and eighth graders made no notable progress on federal math exams this year, according to test scores released on Wednesday, sharply contradicting the results of state-administered tests that showed record gains.”

The average score for New York students in 4th grade were down slightly from 2007, while the 8th grade average score was up slightly.  But in neither case was the change statistically significant.

Changes in proportions of students achieving at basic or proficient levels also were not statistically significant.

In contrast, state test results last spring reported dramatic and widespread gains.  For example, the percentage of 8th grade students meeting standards rose to 80 percent, up from 59 percent just two years before.

Achievement gains on state tests by New York City students have been emphasized by the re-election campaign of New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Nationally, patterns were similarly flat.  The U.S. Education Department noted that this was the first time since the advent of the tests in 1990 that 4th grade math achievement did not improve.

Education scholar Diane Ravitch has column in today’s New York Post titled, “NY’s testing mess: State exams give false picture.”

Dr. Ravitch begins, “There’s something rotten in the state Education Department. Year after year, New York officials have been claiming impressive gains in student achievement — claims we now know to be false.”

She concludes, “”It’s time for the new brooms in Albany — Regents chief Merryl Tisch and Commissioner David Steiner — to fix the state’s flawed testing system.”

Speaking to the Times, Dr. Ravitch was even harsher, calling the NAEP results documentation of “persistent dumbing down” of its tests by the State Education Department.

Other critics have been more restrained, suggesting that test questions have become too predictable, making it easier for schools to “teach to the test.”

Board of Regents Chancellor Merryl Tisch told the Times, ““It is clear to us that this gap cannot stay … We are going to start to address that this year and we are going to make the state tests more transparent and more truthful.”

The discrepancy between national and state results has been rumored for months.

We have previously speculated that one of the reasons for the abrupt move of this year’s state grades 3 though 8 tests to May was to gain more time to improve the tests before they are to be given again.

Here is a link to the NAEP website.