It’s ‘easy pass’ for test kids
NY alters exams
While Mayor de Blasio trumpeted increases in this year’s Common Core test scores, state officials did not reveal that they lowered the number of right answers needed to pass almost half of the exams.
In the third year of the tough exams, the state Education Department again tweaked the “cut scores.” Kids had to get fewer answers right on five of the 12 English and math exams in grades 3 to 8, records show.
The exams with lower cut scores were fourth, fifth, sixth and seventhgrade math and sixthgrade English. On the fifth and sixthgrade math exams, the raw scores needed to pass dropped for the second year in a row. Sixthgraders had to get 50 of 72 points to pass the exam in 2013, 48 in 2014, and only 46 this year.
On four tests in which the bar was lowered, Big Apple kids’ scores jumped significantly. Increases ranged from 1.7 percent to 4.7 percent.
On the fourthgrade math test, students needed to score 45 of 66 points, down from 47 last year. But average performance still dropped by nearly 1 percent.
The mayor held a press conference last month to hail the scores. Overall, 30.4 percent of kids passed English, up from 28.4 percent last year. Those rated proficient in math rose to 35.2 percent, up from 34.2 percent last year.
But the manipulations make the results murky.
“It makes me question the reliability and validity of the results,” said Fred Smith, a former testing analyst for city schools.
“There’s no way for public school parents or taxpayers to know for sure whether New York City kids are better prepared or not,” agreed Bob Schaeffer, public education director of FairTest, a national testing-reform advocacy group.
State education officials did not answer questions raised by The Post, but last year admitted cut scores were lowered on six of the 12 exams. They said they the did this because the tests were “slightly harder.”
The state has a history of inflating scores. Between 2006 and 2009, officials reduced the number of raw points students needed to pass exams.