Schools had less than a year to adjust curriculums and teaching to reflect this schedule change. And there was one other problem. Prior to this year the ELA test scores arrived in mid to late May, four months after the test. The Math results often arrived just in time for June promotion decisions.
When the exam dates were changed speedier results were promised. Yeah, right.
Last week NYC schools had to make promotion decisions but the test scores were not available. The exam scores are promised for July 28th. I’ll believe it when I see it. While the state could not provide tests scores it did provide schools with lists of students who, at least in theory, passed or failed the exams based on their answers to multiple-choice machine-scored portions of the exams.
That excluded parts of the ELA exam that measured writing ability any sections of the math exam that included problem solving and calculation.
Here’s the catch: the state freely admits that these lists are very likely to contain errors. Some children who could likely pass the entire test were listed as failing and others who might actually have failed the complete exam were listed as passing.
In other words, some student who passed the exam and should have been promoted will have to go to summer school while some other student who might have failed will not. Some student who might have graduated middle school will be excluded from participating in the graduation ceremony with his or her classmates while some other student will participate who, perhaps, should not be able to.
In a rare bout of generosity, the state says any student allowed to graduate will not have to return his diploma and repeat 8th grade even if it is later determined that he failed one or both tests.
Could someone please tell me again why we give these tests?
If I remember correctly these tests were supposed to be about teaching better so students would learn better.
What is happening instead is that students are given the message that the system is broken, that little of what happens in it makes sense.
Perhaps that is why my 8th grade students made absolutely no effort to pass the state social studies test. That one was given on June 14th, precisely one week before graduation.
The scores for that one won’t be available until at least October.
