Some Improvements on Tougher Tests

The results of the New York State tests in English and math for students in third through eighth grade are in, and the scores show students in some local school districts making progress toward higher proficiency levels on tests that educators say are much tougher than in past years.

Overall scores for the entire grade third through eighth population, compared to 2013-14 results as reported on state report cards, show students getting better in math in Amagansett, East Hampton, Sag Harbor, and Montauk. English language arts scores in Bridgehampton and Amagansett have improved, while East Hampton's scores remained nearly even and overall scores in Springs and Sag Harbor dropped.

But the big asterisk in all cases is the number of students who opted out of the tests, which some local educators say most likely influenced the results and their statistical validity. According to a New York State press release, 20 percent of children statewide refused to take the tests, with numbers varying widely on the South Fork.

"We had a comparatively low opt-out rate at 15 percent, but that's still ridiculously high to me," Robert Tymann, East Hampton's assistant superintendent, said Friday. "It skews the data, which is important to us to be able to see how we're doing. The less accurate the data, the less accurate our analysis of how we're doing will be."

Similarly, Katy Graves, the Sag Harbor school superintendent, said she thought the opt-outs had a negative impact on the results. In her district, where the Teachers Association of Sag Harbor led a push for parents to have their kids refuse the tests, about 42 percent of the district's 490 students in third through eighth grades opted out of the English tests. In math, accounting for the 61 students who had waivers because they were taking the algebra Regents exam, the opt-out rate was 48 percent.

"We will never get the data we used to," Ms. Graves said. "That's information I'll never know about our curriculum, about how we're progressing through meeting the new Common Core standards."

Not only is the quality of the data in question, Ms. Graves said, but the impact on the students themselves cannot be ignored.

"It's hard because in seventh-grade math, we had 45 percent proficiency with 52 percent of those children opting out," she said. "Of the 33 remaining children, we're looking at 45 percent of them passing. Those are children looking around and seeing 52 of their peers are not taking this test."

Merryl H. Tisch, chancellor of New York's Board of Regents, which manages public education policy in the state, said the board must now do more "to ensure that our parents and teachers understand the value and importance of these tests for our children's education."

"Our tests have been nationally recognized for providing the most honest look at how prepared our students are for future success, and we believe annual assessments are essential to ensure all students make educational progress and graduate college and career-ready," Ms. Tisch said in a statement on the state Department of Education website. "Without an annual testing program, the progress of our neediest students may be ignored or forgotten, leaving these students to fall further behind. This cannot happen."

State officials also released an analysis of individual students who opted out, taking into account their performance on the previous year's tests, and came to the conclusion that the children who opted out were more likely to have scored relatively low on this year's tests.

Students are scored on a system of four levels, with level 1 meaning "well below proficient" and level 4 meaning "more than sufficient for the expectations at this grade." Scoring at levels 3 and 4 together indicate proficiency, according to an explanation provided to parents by New York's Department of Education.

From among East Hampton and its sending districts, excluding Wainscott and Sagaponack because too few students were tested for the state to be able to publicly release specific scores, Amagansett has the highest proficiency rates in math and English: 56.6 percent proficiency in English and 63.2 percent in math. Highlights included no level 1 scores in math, and 54 of 60 students scoring at level 2 or above in English.

In East Hampton, 34.3 percent of the 587 test takers in third through eighth grades scored as proficient in English, up slightly from 34 percent in the 2013-14 school year, when 657 students took the test. In math, 42.4 percent of the 566 test takers scored as proficient, up from 41 percent the year before, when 615 students took the test. Highlights by grade level in 2015 included more than 23 percent of fourth-graders and nearly 20 percent of eighth-graders scoring at level 4 in math. However, more than a third of the students in third, fourth, and fifth grades scored at level 1 in English language arts.

Mr. Tymann said a full analysis will take a few more weeks to complete, but said the slight increases are encouraging nonetheless, especially when compared to state averages. Making that comparison, he said, "buffers" the results from the difficulty of the tests, which undoubtedly fluctuate from year to year.

"It's a more accurate way of understanding your scores," he said. "The tests do change. As the difficulty gets harder or easier over time, comparing yourself to the state average takes changes in the test itself out of the equation. You really can see whether your students were achieving at a higher rate compared to everyone else."

However, he said, the scores still indicate that the implementation of the Common Core standards over the past three years is going well.

"We've been training teachers on different ways of delivering instruction and a different focus for instruction," he said. "The students have been responding very well. My biggest barometer is when I walk into classrooms and see children learning at a more rigorous level and enjoying it. The test scores are one little indicator in how they're doing."

An analysis of Sag Harbor's overall test takers shows that of the 344 students who took the English test this spring, 39.5 percent scored as proficient, compared to 46 percent of the previous year's 456 test takers. On this year's math test, which only 284 students took, 50 percent of them scored as proficient, compared to 41 percent of the previous year's 403 test takers.

Broken down into the individual grade levels, Sag Harbor saw more 60 percent of its eighth grade test takers score as proficient. The district had 61 percent of fourth-grade test takers and 59 percent of sixth-grade test takers score as proficient in math. Ms. Graves explained that the teachers were given more time for math lessons this year, and in some cases added the support of a second teacher for what she called the "fragile learners." The decision paid off.

"If children have more time to practice something, they have more time to play with it and enjoy the curriculum," she said. "We checked along the way before moving to the next piece that they understood it. It was a pretty budget-neutral position . . . and it was integral throughout the year."

Math test scores in Springs stayed almost even with the previous year's results. Of the 327 students who took the tests, 33.8 scored as proficient, whereas the previous year, 34 percent of the 401 students who took the test scored as proficient. The English tests showed a sharper decline. Of the 381 students who took the English tests this spring, 33.3 percent scored as proficient, compared to the 39 percent of the previous year's 416 test takers who were proficient. Grade-level highlights included nearly 64 percent proficiency in eighth-grade English and about 41 percent proficiency in seventh-grade math, and about 42 percent proficiency in sixth-grade math. Officials in Springs could not be reached for comment on Friday.

Montauk students made noticeable improvements in math, where 49.3 percent of this year's 150 test takers reached proficiency. That compares to 44 percent of the previous year's 174 test takers. In English, 46.9 of this spring's 162 test takers reached proficiency, compared to 54 percent of the previous year's 182 test takers. Among the various grade levels, 50 percent of third-graders were proficient in math. Montauk's superintendent could not be reached for comment.

In Bridgehampton, an analysis of this year's test takers compared to the previous year's showed a small rise in English but a small drop in math. Of this year's 47 test takers in English, 21.3 scored as proficient compared to 20 percent of last year's 55 test takers. In math, where one student score was not released because that student was the only one to take the fourth-grade test, approximately 35 percent of the 40 test takers scored as proficient this year, compared to 36 percent of the 52 students who took the test the year before. Bridgehampton's superintendent, Lois Favre, said last Thursday that she had not yet begun to review the results.