Test Results Come In
Students in four South Fork school districts, East Hampton, Sag Harbor, Amagansett, and Montauk, came out ahead of statewide averages in the last standardized English and math tests for grades three through eight, while the Bridgehampton School District straddled the line and the Springs School District fell short.
Because of changes in this year’s tests, including a rule that allowed students as much time as they needed, state officials said in a news release that comparing year-to-year results was not apples-to-apples. Local administrators have instead been comparing their students’ outcomes to those from around the state and county and similar districts.
Statewide, 38 percent of children in grades three through eight scored as proficient in English. In math, the number was 39 percent.
In East Hampton, 41 percent were proficient in English, 42 percent in math. Broken down by individual grades, highlights included 47 percent of seventh graders and 62 percent of eighth graders scoring well in English and 50 percent of sixth graders scoring well in math. Lower scores were received in English by 32 percent of third graders and 20 percent of fifth graders.
“I was very, very pleased with a lot of our results, but there are areas where we obviously have a lot of work to do,” Robert Tymann, East Hampton’s assistant superintendent, said by phone Tuesday. “If a district is ever coming out and saying they are doing as well as they can in every area, that I would question.”
Complicating the results for some districts are the numbers of students who declined to take the exams. East Hampton had a relatively low number of opt-outs, about 14 to 15 percent in English and math, respectively, but that was not the case in other districts.
About one in four students in Springs did not take the tests. Eric Casale, the school principal, said that impacted the results. “We’re not happy. We’re never happy until every child is considered proficient, but the numbers, because of the opt-outs, are skewed. . . . For us it happens to be that many of those kids are proficient students.”
“I know the level of teaching and learning that goes on here,” Mr. Casale said. “We revise our practices every year. We tweak them because you have different groups of kids in the classrooms. But over all, I’m very confident in our program. It is a rigorous program in English language arts and math, as well as science and other content areas.”
Bridgehampton School students scored at 38-percent proficiency in English, meeting the state average, but fell 7 percentage points short in math, at 32 percent. The school had one of the highest percentages opt-outs, 43.7 percent in English and 47.5 percent in math. Lois Favre, Bridgehampton’s superintendent, could not be reached for comment.
Montauk students achieved 54-percent proficiency in English and 50-percent proficiency in math. Roughly 19.5 percent of students opted out of the English tests and 24 percent out of math. Jack Perna, the superintendent, said he was simultaneously happy and unhappy with the results.
“It’s going to sound cliché. There’s always room for improvement,” he said yesterday by phone. “I’m happy with the scores. I wish we didn’t have to do any of this, but that’s the reality. So we will continue to go on and improve the best we can without other subjects suffering.”
In Sag Harbor, where one-third of students opted out of the English tests and 34.2 percent out of math, the results in grades three through eight were above state averages. Forty-five percent scored as proficient in English, 53 percent in math. Highlights included 57 and 50-percent proficiency in English in grades three and four, respectively, and 62 and 65-percent proficiency in math in grades four and seven, respectively. Just 25 percent of eighth graders and 32 percent of sixth graders scored as proficient in English, however. Katy Graves, Sag Harbor’s superintendent, could not be reached for comment.
Suffolk County’s combined scores showed 38-percent proficiency in English and 41-percent in math. Most South Fork schools beat those overall averages.
Principals and teachers have access to specific data showing which students answered which questions incorrectly. Dr. Tymann said this will help teachers support those students in areas where they need help, particularly since the tests, and the controversial Common Core standards, on which the overall curriculum is based, are tougher than they were years ago.
“The standards now require application of knowledge. They are harder, more rigorous than they used to be. . . . So by teaching to the more rigorous standards and trying to get students to apply knowledge . . . they will be ready for whatever the test may bring.”
In Amagansett, the combined third-through-sixth grade test scores showed 47-percent proficiency in English and 49-percent in math. However, Eleanor Tritt, the superintendent, said in April that about one-quarter of the 59 students eligible to take the tests did not do so.
“Regarding opt-outs, we have no way of knowing how, or if, the opt-out movement impacted the state outcomes. . . . We actually use other nationally validated and reliable assessments to guide us in continuous program evaluation,” Ms. Tritt said in an email yesterday.
The state did not publicly release test scores for the Wainscott or Sagaponack School Districts.