Common Core: N.Y. DISTRICTS WITH MORE SPANISH-SPEAKING STUDENTS STRUGGLE WITH NEW TESTS
WRITTEN BY GARY STERN, THE JOURNAL NEWS/WHITE PLAINS, NY | HTTP://LOHUD.US/16VT5DU
Oct. 10, 2013 | Most school districts are trying to come to terms with disappointing results on the new, harder state tests for grades 3 to 8.But districts with large numbers of Spanish-speaking students got absolutely blasted on the new tests and now have to figure out how to move forward.
“We have children come to us in seventh, eighth, ninth grade with no English skills and little education,” said Robin Brennan, president of the North Rockland Teachers’ Association. “The whole idea of judging these kids, without different criteria for their different needs, is absurd.”
The test results for these districts were stark. In North Rockland schools, 82 percent of seventh-graders failed to hit targets for math. In Port Chester, 85 percent of fourth-graders missed English language arts targets. In Ossining, 84 percent of eighth-graders came up