PERFORMANCE TESTS
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Why is this important?
According to the NYS Education Department, the Grade 4 English Language Arts (ELA) exam and the Grade 8 Mathematics exam reflect benchmarks that identify those students who are on target to pass, and those who may have difficulty passing, the English and Mathematics Regents Exams when they reach high school. These are part of the requirements for graduating with NYS’s “Regents Diploma.”
How are we doing?
4th Grade English Language Arts
Before 2005, the average Long Island elementary school had a flat trend in terms of English performance.
The average for 4th grade English Language Arts 2006 performance tests across all 127 school districts shows 81% of the students meet state standards, compared to New York State overall where the scores are 68%. Scores for Long Island dipped slightly from 2005, but were still higher than in previous years. However, when assessing scores based on level of poverty, we find wide gaps in achievement. On the 4th grade English Arts performance tests, schools with low-poverty rates (i.e. wealthy or middle income schools) have high percentages of their students meeting state standards (92% and 82%, respectively). Schools where there is high-poverty have lower scores – 60% of the students met state standards in 2006.
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8th Grade Mathematics
Grade 8 Math performance in New York State and Long Island schools showed steady improvement through 2004, but there were small dips in 2005 and 2006. On average, 71% of students in Long Island schools met the Math standard – better than the State average of 52%.
It is important, albeit difficult, to maintain the educational achievements as children continue to move through the system. On the 8th Grade Math Performance test, scores for both the low-poverty and high-poverty schools fell in 2006. Scores dipped from 77% to 61% for the wealthiest 10% of schools. For the poorest 10% of schools, the scores fell from 37% to 32% meeting the state standard. Scores for the middle 80% of schools were steadier, but fell two percentage points from 77% to 75