Expect a big drop in test scores…

I spent Sunday- Tuesday in Albany at my annual Statewide Superintendent conference. One of the Keynote speakers was Commissioner of Education John King. He repeated an interesting statistic that I also heard him mention last month- expect a 30% decrease in State wide scores on this years ELA and Math exams. I was waiting to blog it until something official came from the State. Below is an excerpt from a memo I received a few hours ago.

As described above, the first New York State tests to measure student progress on the Common Core will be administered in April 2013 for Grades 3-8 ELA and math. Because the new tests are designed to determine whether students are meeting a higher performance standard, we expect that fewer students will perform at or above grade-level Common Core expectations (i.e., proficiency) than was the case with prior year State tests. It is likely that the statewide percentage of students at or above grade level expectations on the new tests will generally be consistent with student performance on the aspirational graduation rate measures and NAEP scores described above. In other words, New York State, for the first time, will be reporting student grade-level expectations against a trajectory of college- and career-readiness as measured by tests fully reflective of the Common Core and, as a result, the number of students who score at or above grade level expectations will likely decrease. States that have already begun to implement Common Core tests (such as Kentucky) have seen this change in student performance. The change in the statewide number of students meeting or exceeding grade level Common Core expectations is necessary if we are to be transparent and honest about what our students know and can do as they progress towards college and career readiness. Student scores on the Common Core assessments will not be directly comparable to scores from prior-year tests because the assessments are based on different, more rigorous standards. As such, the number of students meeting or exceeding Common Core grade-level expectations should not necessarily be interpreted as a decline in student learning or as a decline in educator performance. Instead, the results from these new assessments will give educators, parents, policymakers, and the public a more realistic picture of where students are on their path to being well prepared for the world that awaits them after they graduate from high school.