Kids gained in language, lost in math, tests show
City public students showed small improvements in reading but large losses in math skills between 2019 and 2022, according to the first set of state test scores since the pandemic.
The results, released by the city Education Department on Wednesday, showed a 1.6-percentage-point rise in English language arts proficiency and a 7.6-point drop in math competency.
The data were collected from third- through eighth-grade exam scores.
A small group of city students took the standardized tests this year, potentially skewing the data. Education experts cautioned that the state exam figures may shed limited light on the condition of city schools.
“At first glance, they did surprise me, because I expected to see sharper declines,” said Aaron Pallas, a professor of education at Columbia University Teachers College. “But then as I thought about it, I remembered that we don’t really know how to compare these results to earlier years.”
Pallas said it appeared that roughly 25% fewer city kids took the tests in the spring of 2022 compared with 2019. “It’s really, really hard to make any claims about trends in performance,” he said. “The pandemic really disrupted that.”
The city did not give the tests in 2020, and only about one in five students took exams in 2021, creating a data vacuum. The results for spring 2022 tests displayed various and sometimes contrasting trends.
While younger pupils lost ground in reading, older students jumped forward. The share of seventh-graders scoring proficient in English language arts, rose from around 43% to almost 53%, according to city data.
In math, older students lost even more ground. The proficiency rate for third-grade students slipped from about 53% to 48%, while the rate for eighth-grade students dropped from about 36% to 25%.
“While results are complicated by the pandemic, the results reflect hard work by our students, families and educators during a difficult time,” said First Deputy Schools Chancellor Dan Weisberg.
“They also reflect opportunity gaps and outcomes in particular for Black and Hispanic students as well as students with disabilities and English-language learners that are unacceptable,” Weisberg said.
Though about 71% of Asian students and 67% of white students passed the English test, around 36% of Black students and 37% of Hispanic students scored proficient, according to the city.
In math, 68% of Asian students and 59% of white students reached competency, compared with 21% of Black students and 23% of Hispanic students, the data shows.
Additionally, more than four in 10 New York City public school students ended the last school year marked as chronically absent.
Mayor Adams pledged to improve test scores, but has drawn protests after he led a city budget that cut more than $200 million from school budgets.
The mayor and his schools chancellor, David Banks, have argued that the cuts reflect a shrinking student enrollment, and that it would be reckless to delay cuts with federal stimulus money expected to dry up by 2025.
Jasmine Gripper, the executive director of the advocacy group Alliance for Quality Education and a fierce opponent of the cuts, questioned the value of the new test results. “Beyond the numbers,” she said, “the mayor should be thinking about what students need holistically.”
“This data probably isn’t a great reflection of where kids are academically right now,” Gripper said. “Judging our kids based on state tests alone has always been problematic, and I think is even more problematic with so many unique circumstances.”