State Test Scores Released; 20% of Students Opted Out This Spring

The State Education Department today released the results of the 2015 Grades 3-8 English Language Arts (ELA) and Math Tests that show slight increases in progress statewide since new standards were set in 2013.

Also showing an increase was the number of students who opted out of taking the tests. As the opt-out movement roared this spring, the rate of opt-out jumped to 20 percent this year from 5 percent last year. State Education Commissioner MaryEllen Elia said that many students who opted out were those who had struggled in past years, receiving a 1 or 2 score on state tests.

Here’s a sampling of the ELA data for local districts:

• In Harrison, 47 percent of students in grades 3-8 showed proficiency in 2015, compared to 39 percent in 2014.
• In Rye, 61 percent of students in grades 3-8 showed proficiency in 2015, unchanged from 2014.
• In White Plains, 30 percent showed proficiency in 2015, compared to 29 percent in 2014.

View more data including specific district and school results here.

Overall, students statewide were shown to have made incremental progress in ELA and math since 2013, the first year assessments aligned to the more rigorous learning standards were administered in grades 3-8. In ELA, the percentage of all test takers in grades 3-8 who scored at the proficient level (Levels 3 and 4) remained consistent in 2015 at 31.3 compared to 30.6 in 2014 and 31.1 in 2013.

In math, the percentage of all test takers in grades 3-8 who scored at the proficient level (Levels 3 and 4) increased by seven points in two years to 38.1 in 2015 from 36.2 in 2014 and 31.1 in 2013.

Progress for Black and Hispanic students held steady in 2015 ELA and math. While the percentage of students scoring at the proficient level edged up slightly in both subjects, Black and Hispanic students still face a significant achievement gap. English Language Learners (ELLs) also made small gains in 2015 in ELA and math but still lag behind their non-ELL peers.

The New York state teachers’ union’s almost instant response was that the “test scores in English language arts and math released today tell parents, educators and policymakers almost nothing about students’ progress toward meeting state standards, and are meaningless as measures of teacher effectiveness.”

NYSUT President Karen E. Magee, a former Harrison school district teacher, issued a statement:

“It would be a huge mistake to read anything into these test results. Whether they’re up or down, they tell us virtually nothing meaningful about students or their teachers,” she said. “Student test scores based on poorly written, developmentally inappropriate Pearson tests, in a year in which record numbers of parents repudiated the state’s standardized testing program by ‘opting out,’ aren’t worth the paper they are printed on.”

Elia disagreed. “900,000 students’ test scores shouldn’t be discounted. It’s disingenuous to say these tests aren’t worth anything,” she said.

Low-need communities continued to outperform high-need communities in 2015 as they did in previous years, state officials said.