More elementary and junior-high students passed their city reading tests this year – but a majority still fail to meet standards.
About 41 percent of the nearly 300,000 students in grades 3, 5, 6 and 7 got a passing grade – up from 36 percent last year.
The scores mirror the increase in the number of fourth-graders who passed state reading exams whose scores were released last week.
“It’s a mixed bag,” said Schools Chancellor Harold Levy.
“It’s moving in the right direction. But it’s clearly not good enough. It’s clearly not where we want to be.”
It’s the second year the Board of Education has administered the test, and education experts expected better scores as teachers and students became more familiar with the exam – and “prepped” for it.
The results show:
The percentage of students exceeding the standards went up in every community school district – but there’s still a huge gap between the best and worst schools.
The improvements were not across-the-board. Scores actually dropped 4 percent for this year’s fifth-graders and they were flat for third-graders. Scores went up 9 percent for fourth-graders and 12 percent for sixth- and seventh-graders.
There was a 7 percent jump in scores in the worst-performing schools.
Forty-two percent of former limited-English-proficiency students exceeded the standards – higher than the city average.
Overall, students scored better on this year’s test than the one they took last year.
There was an 18-point increase in test scores of students who were held back.
But blacks and Hispanics – a majority of the enrolled students – still perform far worse than whites and Asians.
“This is a disaster for African-American and Hispanic students,” said Board of Ed member Ninfa Segarra.
Some educators applauded the results.
“It’s actually good news. You would expect a gain in the second year of a new test, but the gains were larger than I expected,” said Norman Fruchter, director of New York University’s Institute for Education and Social Policy.
But some parent advocates were not jumping for joy.
Leo Stevens of the United Parents Association said there’s still an unacceptable number of students who still can’t read and write well in minority neighborhoods.
“Everyone pats themselves on the back for a minor increase,” he said. “Heads should be rolling right now.”