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Friday, June 4, 2010

New testing schedule complicates NYC’s summer school plans | GothamSchools

New testing schedule complicates NYC’s summer school plans | GothamSchools

New testing schedule complicates NYC’s summer school plans

When the state announced plans to push back the date of the annual tests, some teachers and administrators bristled. But now the change is complicating a rite of passage: figuring out which students are promoted to the next grade and which are going to summer school.
This year’s delayed testing schedule puts New York City in the awkward position of choosing which students to send to summer school without knowing whether they passed the state’s annual math and English exams. Currently, schools have their students’ raw test scores,but they don’t know whether the scale score passes the official state cut-off for passing, because the state hasn’t set cut-off scores yet.
In response, the city is working with the state to set their own cutoff scores months before the official results come out in August.

In order to qualify for summer school, students have to score very low on the tests — getting a one or a two out of a possible four.
“We will determine based on prior years’ data what we believe a two, three, or four would equate to this year,” said a spokesman for the city’s Department of Education, Daniel Kanner, adding that the cutoffs will be set

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