Punishing kids for adult failures
The massive score drop on tough new New York tests gives us an opportunity -- and obligation -- to change course
Comments (5)BY DIANE RAVITCH / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
THURSDAY, AUGUST 8, 2013, 4:30 AM
ANTHONY DELMUNDO/FOR NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
State Education Commissioner John King, City Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott and state Board of Regents Chair Merryl Tisch visited a Queens school last year.
Test scores across New York State have collapsed, new results released Wednesday showed. Last year, 55% of students in the state passed the reading test; 65% passed the math test. This year, only 31% passed both subjects. In New York City, the proportion passing the state tests fell from 47% in reading and 60% in math to only 26% in reading and 30% in math.
Did the students suddenly get stupid? Did their teachers become incompetent overnight? Did schools fail en masse?
None of the above. The state Board of Regents, having decided that the old tests were too easy, changed the tests and raised the passing mark. Three years ago, in 2010, they did something similar — raising the passing mark on the grounds that the tests were too easy, the bar too low.
This time, the regents have implicitly aligned the tests with a set of ostensibly national standards known as Common Core, which have been heavily promoted by the Obama administration as a
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