Education Officials Pledge Changes After "National Report Card" Finds NY Students Do Poorly

By: Lindsey Christ

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A new nationwide report card released Tuesday shows New York schools could use some extra help when it comes to students' test performance. NY1's Education reporter Lindsey Christ filed the following report.

It's been hard to tell whether New York students been learning more in recent years, due to big changes in state tests designed to measure that. But now a national test suggests the answer is "no."

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) tests reading and math skills among fourth and eighth graders every other year and is often called the "nation's report card."

The latest results released Tuesday show scores are up across the country, except in fourth grade reading, which stayed the same.

But New York saw no improvement anywhere. Most scores were flat, except fourth grade math, which actually went down.

"We're back to where we were eight years ago, and New York State was actually the only state in the country that showed a decline in fourth grade math performance," said Aaron Pallas of Teachers College.

State Education Commissioner John King immediately released a statement, calling the results disappointing and unacceptable. He said, "New York needs change.... The NAEP scores make clear a tough but necessary truth: our students are not where they should be."

King said they are phasing in a new curriculum and developing new tests, both designed to be more rigorous.

The shakeup actually started after the last NAEP test, when New York students did far worse on the national exams than on state tests. Even though state tests have gotten harder over the last two years, they are still not as difficult as the national exam.

NAEP found only 35 percent of New York students are proficient in reading and 33 percent in math. But state tests say 53 percent of third through eighth graders are proficient in reading and 64 percent percent are proficient in math.

The teachers union president blamed budget cuts and too much test prep for the lack-luster scores.

"We need to get back to a well-rounded education and that's what NAEP really measures," said United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew.

While only statewide results were released this week, NAEP scores for city students will come out later this year.