Friday, May 21, 2010

On recheck, thousands of N.J. students fail graduation test | Philadelphia Inquirer | 05/20/2010

On recheck, thousands of N.J. students fail graduation test | Philadelphia Inquirer | 05/20/2010

On recheck, thousands of N.J. students fail graduation test

Thousands of New Jersey students may still be in jeopardy of not graduating, based on results of rescored alternative high school exit exams that state education officials released Wednesday.
The state rechecked a portion of the failing exams from the Alternative High School Assessment test administered in January.
Of 3,015 students with failing math scores that were rechecked, only 288 got passing grades, according to state data. On the language arts test, 1,915 scores were reviewed and only 217 were passing..
The state Department of Education announced its review of the tests after the Education Law Center made public what appeared to be abysmal results of the tests given in January.
According to data obtained by the center, of 9,514 students who took all required parts of the math exam, only 34 percent passed. Of the 4,293 students who took the language exam, only 10 percent passed.
Counting the rescored passing tests, the state says 37 percent of all students passed the math exam and 15 percent of all students passed the language arts exam.


Ackerman set to make top-level changes

Under scrutiny in recent months for her administration's handling of violence and other issues, Philadelphia Schools Superintendent Arlene Ackerman will soon announce major changes to her senior leadership team.