4 days ago
NYC student reading, math scores increase amid curriculum overhaul: test data
NEW YORK — More New York City public school students are considered 'proficient readers' after two years of major curriculum reforms, according to state test scores released Monday.
About 56.3% of third- through eighth-graders met the state's bar for proficiency on English Language Arts exams in the spring — a 7.2 percentage-point increase since the year before. The results erased what officials referred to as last year's 'implementation dip' as students and teachers adjusted to the new curriculum.
In math, 56.9% of students scored proficient or better, up by 3.5 percentage points.
With the major gains, the city's students slightly outperformed the state in both reading and math. The Adams administration touted the proficiency rates as the system's highest in more than a decade, though experts caution against making comparisons to pre-2023 data, when ELA and math tests were aligned to new standards.
'While, of course, I am thrilled that we saw these kinds of increases, it's no time to rest,' Schools Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos said during an exclusive interview with the Daily News. 'What these numbers tell us is that we're on the right track. … That there's a lot of work to still do.'
At the start of the 2023-24 school year, the city's public schools, under then-Chancellor David Banks, began standardizing reading curriculum as part of a literacy initiative known as 'NYC Reads.' Elementary schools were required to use one of three preapproved reading programs with a focus on evidence-based literacy instruction and phonics, which were implemented over two school years.
On last year's reading exams, students who had more exposure to the curriculum tended to fare better than kids newer to the initiative. NYC Reads Phase 1 schools saw a higher increase from 48.1% to 59.7% — 11.6 percentage points in grades 3-5 — compared with districts in Phase 2, which increased 10.4 percentage points from 47.0% to 57.5%.
A parallel effort is underway to standardize math curriculum in middle and high schools. While both the reading and math initiatives have been tweaked over the last year in response to teacher feedback, the Adams administration has promised to see them through. By the 2027-28 school year, Mayor Eric Adams, if reelected, has said all middle schools will be required to use city-approved programs in literacy and math.
'These academic gains in English Language Arts and math are a testament to what's possible when we invest in our young people and believe in their potential,' Adams said in a statement.
The new scores come as Adams, who sat out the Democratic primary as he came up against since-dropped federal corruption charges, faces an uphill battle to reelection. Many of the mayor's most serious challengers have praised his focus on improving literacy, and the positive trend in last year's results could motivate a possible successor to stay the course.
'If the next administration sustains and expands this work, the best is yet to come!' said Banks, the former chancellor.
Among the most promising signs in Monday's data were great strides by the city's youngest test takers. Third-grade students, who learned to read under the new regime and were spared COVID-19 school lockdowns, saw their ELA scores rise by 12.9 percentage points.
Kim Sweet, executive director of Advocates for Children of New York, called third-graders' advances on reading exams a particularly 'hopeful signal that we are headed in the right direction.'
'At the same time,' Sweet said, 'the continued disparities by economic need, race/ethnicity, and disability status make clear that many students need extra support to become strong readers.'
In math, Black and Hispanic students made the largest gains over the school year, but at 43% remain far below proficiency rates for white and Asian students: 75% and 81%, respectively. In reading, Black students made the largest gains, but still at a 47% proficiency rate compared with 73% for white students.
Just 29% of students with disabilities were proficient in math and under 27% in reading.
Overall, the results reinforced early progress shown this year on academic 'screeners' — fast assessments that are less comprehensive, but administered more frequently than the annual state exams. The screeners are used by teachers in real time to identify students in need of extra help.
Aviles-Ramos said a major focus over the summer has been improving how teachers provide targeted support on top of classroom instruction for students who need it most.
'If that's not enough for you to understand the goal of the lesson, then sometimes you need that extra support, that intervention,' Aviles-Ramos said. 'Those practices have not necessarily been standardized — teachers do that work on their own.'
'We want to take the guesswork out of that,' added the chancellor, comparing it to taking the guesswork out of classroom instruction through curriculum mandates.
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