{"id":2795,"date":"2015-03-12T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-03-12T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/research.prattsils.org\/?p=2795"},"modified":"2015-03-12T09:00:00","modified_gmt":"2015-03-12T13:00:00","slug":"whats-proficient-more-students-failing-according-to-new-standards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/studentwork.prattsi.org\/infovis\/visualization\/whats-proficient-more-students-failing-according-to-new-standards\/","title":{"rendered":"What’s Proficient? More Students Failing According to New Standards"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a few weeks, New York City public school students will be taking the statewide English and math exams. Faced with the more rigorous common core standards, fewer numbers of children have scored at levels deemed \u201cproficient\u201d over the past two years. It\u2019s likely the trends will continue\u00a0for the 2015 tests as well. We\u2019ve crossed this path before.<\/p>\n

During his re-election campaign for a second term, education mayor Michael Bloomberg proclaimed, \u201cThe hard work going on in our schools is really paying off.\u201d Test scores validated his reforms, including mayoral control of schools, reliance on metrics to track progress, and incentives given to schools and teachers for better scores.<\/p>\n

Indeed, data demonstrated that from 2006 to 2009, the numbers of children achieving a level 3 \u2014 deemed \u201cproficient\u201d \u2014 were steadily increasing. The numbers at level 4 were growing too, but the big news was how many students previously at levels 1 and 2 were now passing. For example, in 2006, just 46 percent of seventh-grade students passed the math exam; by 2009 that figure had increased to 84 percent. In total numbers of students, 56,000 of the roughly 70,000 seventh-graders (compared with just 32,000 kids in 2006) were now considered proficient — certainly a huge success.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"NYC<\/a><\/p>\n

Unfortunately the numbers didn\u2019t correspond\u00a0with other measures such as results on national exams or Regents tests. So the state recalibrated the scoring; in order to pass, students needed to have more correct answers. The 2010 scores reflected the tougher standard. In every district and borough, the gains were reversed. On the seventh-grade math exams, about 54 percent were passing: more than\u00a020,000 more students were now considered failing.<\/p>\n

Our data shows the steady increase of students passing at level 3 between\u00a02006 to 2009 and then\u00a0\u2014\u00a0after the new standard was applied\u00a0\u2014\u00a0a shifting of kids at level 3 to the failing levels 1 and 2. Of note, the chart also shows that the numbers of students scoring at the highest level 4 are increasing. As scores have traditionally been tied to demographic and socioeconomic indicators, this may\u00a0reflect a\u00a0trend of\u00a0wealthier\u00a0families \u2014 those presumably with the means to support or provide tutors for their kids \u2014 choosing to raise their children in the city. For these high scorers, the tougher standard wasn\u2019t making a difference perhaps because the exam tests for a “basic” level of proficiency.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a few weeks, New York City public school students will be taking the statewide English and math exams. Faced with the more rigorous common core standards, fewer numbers of children have scored at levels deemed \u201cproficient\u201d over the past two years. It\u2019s likely the trends will continue\u00a0for the 2015 tests as well. We\u2019ve crossed…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":94,"featured_media":2800,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[18,19],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-2795","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-visualization","tag-education","tag-nyc"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paBdcV-J5","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentwork.prattsi.org\/infovis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2795","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentwork.prattsi.org\/infovis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentwork.prattsi.org\/infovis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentwork.prattsi.org\/infovis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/94"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentwork.prattsi.org\/infovis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2795"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/studentwork.prattsi.org\/infovis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2795\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentwork.prattsi.org\/infovis\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentwork.prattsi.org\/infovis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentwork.prattsi.org\/infovis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentwork.prattsi.org\/infovis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2795"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentwork.prattsi.org\/infovis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=2795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}