The New York State Regents have endorsed the raising of the “cut scores” for the Grades 3-8 English/Language Arts and Mathematics assessments administered in the 2009-2010 school year:
What does this mean?
• As a result of increasing the “cut scores” for these assessments, more students statewide will be identified as needing additional academic assistance.
• This change happened after the fact-after the curriculum had been taught, after tests have been taken, after planning and hiring for next year had occurred.
• As always, the Putnam Valley Central School District will examine the academic needs of each student in order to ascertain his or her skill needs. Our local grades kindergarten through twelve teacher developed, electronically mapped curriculum, assessments and feedback, help inform instruction within classrooms and across grade levels and courses. At Putnam Valley, we are committed to continuing to build our capacity to meet individual students where they are, and supporting them to experience at least a year’s worth of growth in learning annually.
Why did the Regents endorse this increase in cut scores?
• The Regents have chosen to raise these cut scores due to the apparent incompatibility of the New York State assessments to national measures such as the National Assessment of Educational Progress. Additionally, the Grades 3-8 assessment results do not appear to correlate well with high school assessment measures and college readiness.
• The tests were based on standards and core curriculum that the State has decided is lacking in one or more aspects, thus, the New York State Education Department and the Board of Regents have adopted new standards – the Common Core Standards in English Language Arts and Mathematics. However the 2009-2010 tests were based on the existing or “old” standards. Therefore, as new assessments are developed, it will be difficult to compare the new assessment results to previous ones.
• We anticipate that the assessment results as well as the new cut scores will be publicly released tomorrow, 7/28/10. We will keep you updated on additional information as we receive it.
