Catskill, Coxsackie-athens districts back in good standing with state

The Coxsackie-athens and Catskill school districts were removed from the state’s “Targeted Districts” list after improving their standardized test scores and other metrics followed by the state.

The state Education Department employs a ranking system based on standardized test scores to categorize schools in the state, which can be in three categories: Comprehensive Support and Improvement, Additional Targeted Support and Improvement, and Local Support and Improvement, which means the school is in good standing. Districts with schools not in good standing are considered Targeted Districts.

Coxsackie-athens’ middle school moved from the Additional Targeted Support and Improvement category to be in good standing, which also took the district into good standing, while Catskill’s middle school moved off the Comprehensive Support and Improvement list, similarly putting the district in good standing. The scores are mostly based on a battery of standardized tests, including ELA and math tests given in grades 3-8 and the Regents exams, as well as chronic absenteeism rates and other metrics.

Catskill’s superintendent released a statement celebrating the redesignation, while Coxsackieathens’s superintendent said he believed the state system was a poor way to grade schools.

Coxsackie-athens Superintendent Randall Squire said state test scores, which he called “archaic,” were “never prioritized at Coxsackie-athens.”

“We believe our kids are more than a test score,” he said. “We believe by concentrating and focusing on the whole child and providing the environment they need to achieve their own extraordinary success, one of the results is an improvement on standardized tests — but we don’t focus on them, we don’t teach to the tests. We believe there are other indicators that are more accurate to determine whether a kid is going to be ready for college, career, life.”

Many educators have long decried standardized tests, saying they tie teachers’ hands and force them to teach test-taking instead of useful skills. In 2015, when thengov. Andrew Cuomo’s Education Department threatened to tie teacher’s performance reviews to their students’ scores on grade 3-8 tests, the state teachers union urged parents to opt out of taking the tests. To this day, 18 percent of students refused to take the tests last year, according to the New York Post.

There were questions over last year’s test results, which weren’t released for seven months and appeared contradictory.

Squire said the district has seen “remarkable improvements” in its graduation rates, which were in the mid-70s in the early 2010s. The rate for the 2022-23 school year was 86.1 percent, according to the state Education Department. The superintendent said the goal was not just for students to graduate, “but to graduate ready.”

Catskill Superintendent Dan Wilson, who announced the achievement at a school board meeting last week, called it “fantastic news and something our entire school community can be proud of.” The school district had been on the Targeted Districts list since the 2011-12 school year, according to the district.

“I commend our students, their families, and most importantly, our staff for their dedication and hard work as we continue to build momentum and improve outcomes for the children of this community,” Wilson said.

Catskill’s graduation rate was 90.4 percent during the 2022-23 school year, according to the Education Department.