Delays in test results add challenges to declining academic performances in schools.
“They’re resetting the benchmark every two, three years to obfuscate their failure,” the co-founder of an education center that advocates for academic rigor in K-12 public schools, Place NYC, and a mother of two children who attended public schools, Yiatin Chu, tells the Sun.
When state assessment scores are released this fall, the new standards will make it difficult to compare results to prior years. Changes to the exams over the past decade have made it impossible to track trends over time, as officials have warned not to compare results to prior years when aspects of the tests are modified.
“It’s very important for parents to have an objective standardized metric on how our school system is performing,” Ms. Chu says, noting that report cards are inadequate alternatives to determining student proficiency.
“Grades are subjective and depend on you being liked by the teacher, the degree of rigor in what is taught, the attitude of the principal and teachers,” Ms. Chu says. “A 95 in one school is not the same as a 95 in another school.”
Read the full article on The New York Sun: https://www.nysun.com/article/as-new-york-public-schools-struggle-with-learning-losses-from-covid-shutdowns-state-is-withholding-students-test-scores