Top News Stories
Federal math tests find no improvement in city since 2007
Dec 17, 2009 12:25 PM
Despite a relentless focus on test performance since Mayor Michael Bloomberg took over the school system, New York City failed to score any significant gains in either 4th- or 8th-grade math in the latest round of the National Assessment of Educational Progress, the gold standard national achievement test.
The findings directly contradict results on the New York State tests, which show city students making large performance gains since 2007.
The city’s 4th- and 8th-graders did make progress from 2003 to 2007, the national tests show, but the momentum flatlined after 2007. In addition, on the closely watched racial achievement gaps, the city has not narrowed the black-white or Hispanic-white gaps in math since 2003, the NAEP results revealed, though the mayor and Chancellor Joel Klein have made heavy investments in trying to close the gap.
“We have heard endlessly from the administration that the sole reason our students gained ground was because of the city Department of Education’s test-focused approach to education. They led the public to believe that in fact we were closing the achievement gap. Clearly that is not the case,” UFT President Michael Mulgrew wrote in a letter to members on Dec. 8, the day the results were announced.
A more reliable test
The NAEP, designed and administered by the federal Department of Education, is widely considered the gold standard measure of student achievement, both because it is so rigorous and because it is far less subject to political pressures than state achievement tests. NAEP tests challenging skills and knowledge levels that a national panel of experts believe are appropriate at each grade.
On the NAEP exams, New York City 4th-graders gained one point in proficiency since 2007 while the city’s 8th-graders rose four points.
In contrast to the NAEP results, the city’s recent state test results showed 4th-graders gaining more than 10 points and 8th-graders a whopping 25 points in proficiency since 2007.
Such unusual leaps have led State Education Commissioner David Steiner and Regents Chancellor Merryl Tisch to call for an overhaul of the state tests and resetting the proficiency bar.
They have also led the UFT once again to challenge the city DOE’s reliance on these tests.
“The administration has made this flawed state test data the key barometer for everything from school progress reports and teacher bonuses to school closings,” Mulgrew told members in his letter. “Now it even wants to use this data to decide teacher tenure. But its approach is fundamentally flawed, because state test results are not aligned with true learning.”
Spinning the results
Chancellor Klein, in a presentation to reporters, argued that the city’s small upticks showed the city making progress from 2007 to 2009. But NAEP determined the narrow gains were “statistically insignificant.” Still, the chancellor went several rounds with skeptical reporters in trying to make his case.
The chancellor’s office also privately commissioned the National Center for Education Statistics to pull apart the city scores from a “rest-of-state” average for New York. (A rest-of-state average removes the one-third of students from the state total who are city students.) An elaborate PowerPoint, which his office prepared for reporters, showed the city outperforming the rest-of-state average on NAEP over the last four years.
Other DOE PowerPoint slides showed the city’s black and Hispanic youngsters narrowing performance gaps with their suburban counterparts in some instances. “Whose blacks are on top?” the chancellor demanded, showing reporters the slides.
But the reporters did not seem persuaded. The chancellor did not present the underlying data for his rest-of-state comparisons, and his claims that city minority students were closing in on suburban minorities could not be fully verified.
An urban district focus
The city’s performance on the NAEP is part of a federal focus on urban school districts that began in 2003. Before then, NAEP results were only reported for entire states.
The so-called Trial Urban District Assessment, launched in 2003 with 10 urban school systems including New York, now compares NAEP performance in 18 cities around the country.
New York City performs well against many of these cities. In the 4th-grade math, only Austin, Texas, and Charlotte, N.C., outperform New York City. In 8th grade, the city was also bested by Boston, Houston and San Diego.
But the city has scored higher than the urban district average since TUDA began, testament to its well-educated teaching force and the rich cultural diversity of New York.
