Merrick and Bellmore Students Score High on State Exams

The New York State Department of Education released the results of the 2016 ELA and math exams, and students across the Merrick and Bellmore school districts scored well above the state average on both.

Statewide, the percentage of students scoring "proficient" on the exams (scoring a 3 or 4, instead of a 1 or 2) also increased. Students proficient in ELA went up from 31.3 percent to 37.9. In math, the percentage of proficient students went from 38.1 to 39.1.

The State Education Department made several changes to the 2016 ELA and math exams through a deliberate process. These changes included contracting a new test vendor with a requirement of greater teacher involvement, reducing the number of questions on every grade 3-8 ELA and math assessments and allowing students who are productively working to complete their exams.

In addition, more test questions were released than ever before and earlier than ever before to support instruction. Further, when parents receive their child’s school reports later this summer, they will see that they are easier to understand and provide more information on how their child performed.

Merrick and Bellmore students placed well above the state average for the percentage of students scoring proficient, and increased their already high scores as well. In the Merrick School District, the percentage of students ranked proficient in ELA went from 57 to 67 percent. In math, they went from 73 to 78 percent. And in the North Merrick School District, ELA scores went from 47 to 58 percent proficient, and math increased from 69 to 70 percent.

In Bellmore, students performed nearly as well. Students in the Bellmore School District increased their proficiency in ELA from 51 to 65 percent, but dropped in math from 76 to 74 percent. The North Bellmore School District mirrored those results, going from 44 to 51 percent proficient in ELA, but dropping from 56 to 50 percent in math.

You can look at the complete report cards Merrick, North Merrick, Bellmore and North Bellmore at these links.

Photo: Google Maps.