The State Education Department has released results of the English and math tests for studentsin grades 3 through 8 from this past spring.
The Rochester City School District scored significantly below a number of other districts around the state.
State Education Commissioner MaryEllenElia does note that because of changes made to the tests this year, it is somewhat hard to compare the numbers to last year.
But the figures did show that just 6.7 percent of Rochester City School students were proficient in English, although that was a two percent increase from last year.
Math proficiency in the city was at 7.2 percent, down slightly from last year. Those numbers were the worst among the so-called ‘Big 5’ city school districts around the state, and significantly below many of the suburban districts.
Elia says there were improvements overall in New York State on these tests, but it’s a work in progress.
“Even with the increases in proficiency this year, clearly, much remains to be done. As I said earlier, this is a multi-year process.”
The Rochester City School District released this statement:
"Results from the 2016 assessments show that Rochester students are making progress in English language proficiency that we need to accelerate.
The number of Rochester students who scored proficient on the ELA assessment this year increased at every grade level from three to eight and was up 2 percentage points overall, with 207 more students rated proficient in ELA. Students in grades 3 and 4 had the District’s highest level of proficiency at 8.3 percent, which indicates that the District’s focus on helping students to read on grade level by third grade is yielding results over time. Scores of level 2 or higher, which includes students who are nearly proficient, were up 6.2 percentage points—an increase of 650 students compared to last year. Math scores were relatively flat, with two fewer students testing as proficient in math this year compared to last year.
Unfortunately, the progress of Rochester students continues to lag behind other urban districts in New York and suburban districts in Monroe County. We have increased investments in prekindergarten, special education, a new K-2 English curriculum developed by District teachers and many other services to help close that gap. Commissioner Elia noted in announcing the results that the Rochester-Monroe Anti-Poverty Initiative can play a positive role. Working together with our families and the community, the District is committed to accelerating achievement for Rochester students."
The statewide figures also show that about 21 percent of students statewide opted out of the tests, up slightly from last year.
There were changes made this year to help increase participation, including reducing the number of test questions, and giving students more time to take the tests.
