New York State Test Scores Fall, Schenectady Superintendent Responds [Video]

According to state testing standards, less than a third of the state students are proficient enough in Math and English. The results of the state proficiency test were released with only a 31% pass rate. That's way less than the 55% pass rate from last year.

Schenectady City School District Superintendent Dr. Larry Spring spoke with News10 addressing the numbers :

There is disappointment that these tests measured things that weren't completely instructed, so kids didn't have the instruction that those tests were assessing.

Kids didn't get dumber and teachers didn't work less hard. This is something where the standard, the measurement, by which this performance was measured, was different.  It was a whole new set of tests against a whole new set of standards.

State Education Commissioner John stated the test are the most accurate tool to measure students' readniness for life after graduation. Timothy Kremer, New York State School Boards Association, follows up by saying

It is important to recognize that student achievement did not go down. Instead, standards went up.

It is going to be a bit of a shock and a little bit demoralizing at first, but know what is being attempted here is to get better.  To put into place a public education system that is truly world class standards

 

It should be noted that no new schools will be added to the state's watch list after the release of the results.