Kids score well in English, low in math on new Missouri test

Test scores improved slightly for students in third through eight grades in April on English and math exams, but 20 percent of students opted out amid criticism of the standardized testing, the state Education Department said Wednesday.

Statewide, the state said the results “remained consistent” in 2015 with 31.3 percent scoring at the proficient level (levels 3 and 4) in English compared to 30.6 in 2014 and 31.1 in 2013.

Not only were the tests based on new content in English and math this year, but students also took them online, rather than the traditional pencil-and-paper test.

Those field tests were part of the implementation of the common core standards adopted by Missouri and other states over the past few years. Unionized teachers in New York have been upset about plans to evaluate teachers based on test scores, and they also promoted boycotting the tests.

New York City’s scores on state tests continued to inch up in 2015, though the number of students refusing to sit for the tests this year tripled.

She said the tests were taken by 900,000 of the 1.1 million eligible students and their results will help educators pinpoint who needs help. In math, that number went up from 41 to 44 percent. So, state education officials had to use alternative methods for figuring out what score would mean students are proficient in the subject matter and deserve a diploma. Plainedge Union Free School District (more than 3,200 students) and Shoreham-Wading River (about 2,500), both on Long Island, had opt-out rates at more than 70 percent.

“The problem that we’re all going to run into in terms of interpretation”, he said, “is that you can’t compare last year’s test to this year’s test, so you have to look at improvement kind of differently”.

In English language arts, 5th-graders tested the strongest, with 59.1 percent testing proficient or advanced. “Whether they’re up or down, they tell us virtually nothing meaningful about students or their teachers”, said New York State United Teachers President Karen Magee in a statement.

By and large, the latest results showed modest gains on this year’s math and reading assessments for those schools now in receivership.

Twenty percent of students opted out of exams this year, a huge increase compared to recent years.

“This can not happen”, she said. Their results mostly held steady with their performance in the previous two years.

“I’ve made it a priority to establish a dialog with parents so they better understand why we test”, Elia said.

“I think that’s a powerful thing for us”, state Education Commissioner MaryEllen Elia said.

“Annual assessments provide important information about individual students for parents and classroom teachers and allow us to keep track of how all student groups are doing”.

“Our hope is that next year we will have better data so that we can relook at that (passing) cut score”, board member Isabel Munoz-Colon said.