News Brief

08/07/13

Lower NY Test Scores Reflect Tougher Standards

Associated Press (08/07/13) Matthews, KarenLess than 33 percent of New York students were found proficient in math and English under the new Common Core learning standards. Thirty-one percent of students in grades 3-8 met or exceeded math and English proficiency standards, down from 55 percent of students proficient in English and 65 percent in math under the previous assessments. In the first state to test under Common Core, Kentucky student scores dropped about 30 percent as well. Council of Chief State School Officers Executive Director Chris Minnich says, "We're raising the bar for the K-12 schools in this country. This will be a hard transition but it's really important for kids. States should recognize that it's not a terrible thing to have this adjustment and that we should begin seeing growth." The tests focus on critical thinking, requiring students to write more after analyzing complex texts and multistep problems in math as well as explain their logic in written responses. New York State Education Commissioner John King Jr. says the 2013 results were not surprising and would be used as a baseline for improvement, rather than to label any new districts or schools as failing.
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