Q. Why are these tests required, and how are the results used?

A. Public school districts in New York State are required to administer ELA and Math tests annually to students in grades 3 through 8. Results from these tests are used for a variety of purposes, including 1) measuring and monitoring school and school-district accountability, 2) measuring and monitoring student learning progress in ELA and math, and 3) evaluating teacher effectiveness. More information on each of these areas can be found by following these links:

•   Annual School and District Report Cards- https://reportcards.nysed.gov/

•   EngageNY- information for families- http://engageny.org/parent-and-family-

  resources

•   APPR- Annual Professional Performance Review- http://usny.nysed.gov/rttt/teachers-

  leaders/plans/docs/bedford-appr-plan.pdf

Q. How have the tests changed in response to the new Common Core State Standards?

A. Beginning with the current school year (2012-13), the NY State Education Department is re-designing its assessment program (http://engageny.org/resource/common-core- implementation-timeline) to measure what students know and can do relative to the grade-level Common Core State Standards. Specific changes to the Grades 3-8 ELA and math tests (http://engageny.org/resource/test-guides-for-english-language-arts-and-mathematics) include the following:

1. Increases in Rigor – The CCSS are back-mapped, grade-by-grade, from college and career readiness. Many of the questions on the Common Core assessments are more advanced and complex than those found on prior assessments that measured prior grade-level standards.

2. Focus on Text – To answer ELA questions correctly, students will need to read and analyze each passage completely and closely, and be prepared to carefully consider responses to multiple-choice questions. For constructed response items, students will need to answer questions with evidence gathered from rigorous literature and informational texts. Some texts will express an author’s point of view, with which not all readers will agree.

3. Depth of Math – Students will be expected to understand math conceptually, use prerequisite skills with grade-level math facts, and solve math problems rooted in the real-world, deciding for themselves which formulas and tools (such as protractors or rulers) to use.

Thus, the April 2013 tests will be the first aligned with the Common Core. Because the new tests are designed to determine whether students are meeting a higher performance standard, the State expects that, “fewer students will perform at or above grade-level Common Core expectations (i.e., proficiency) than was the case with prior year State tests.” In other words, New York State, for the first time, will be reporting student grade-level expectations against a trajectory of college- and career-readiness as measured by tests fully reflective of the Common Core and, as a result, the number of students who score at or above grade level expectations will likely decrease. States that have already begun to implement Common Core tests (such as Kentucky) have seen this change in student performance.

Q. What is New York State’s rationale for these changes and expected lower proficiency? A. The Education Departments response to this question is as follows:

The change in the statewide number of students meeting or exceeding grade level Common Core expectations is necessary if we are to be transparent and honest about what our students know and can do as they progress towards college and career readiness. Student scores on the Common Core assessments will not be directly comparable to scores from prior-year tests because the assessments are based on different, more rigorous standards. As such, the number of students meeting or exceeding Common Core grade-level expectations should not necessarily be interpreted as a decline in student learning or as a decline in educator performance. Instead, the results from these new assessments will give educators, parents, policymakers, and the public a more realistic picture of where students are on their path to being well prepared for the world that awaits them after they graduate from high school.

Q. What impact will these changes have for school accountability and teacher evaluation?

A. School accountability will not be based on the new, college-ready benchmarks of proficiency established for this year’s tests. For the purposes of teacher evaluation, the process the state uses provides a comparison of all teachers of a given grade—thus the change in results should be comparable, enabling the state to develop teacher effectiveness scores comparable to last year.