By Peter Simon
NEWS STAFF REPORTER
The new chancellor of the state Board of Regents said Albany’s student assessment tests are too easy and give a misleadingly optimistic view of students’ prospects of success in college or at work.
Merryl H. Tisch said she would push for tests that are more comprehensive and less predictable, and for “a proficiency level that is far more revealing.”
In other words, does Tisch feel that the assessment tests given in grades 3-8 are too easy?
“In my heart of hearts, I honestly believe that,” she replied in a telephone interview.
For example, Tisch said, eighth-grade students in some urban districts who earn scores of three — or the proficiency level—on assessment tests have only a 50 percent chance, on average, of graduating from high school.
In addition, she said, consideration should be given to raising the passing grade on state Regents exams to 75 from 65.
Tisch succeeded Town of Tonawanda resident Robert M. Bennett as chancellor April 1, and she is expected to be a driving force in the future of the state’s educational reform effort.
She stressed repeatedly that the state’s efforts to date have been on target and successful, and that dramatic test score increases in Buffalo and other cities are praiseworthy and reflect real progress.
But Tisch, chairwoman of the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty, said the state reform effort is at a crossroads and needs to be closely examined.
Adding to the sense of transition is the impending resignation of State Education Commissioner Richard P. Mills, who guided the reform effort for 13 years. A national search is being conducted for his successor.
“We have a foundation on which we can build the future,” Tisch said. “Now comes the hand-to-hand combat. The only way to do that is to call the question out.”
Tisch, a former elementary school teacher, highlighted these concerns:
• Students in New York do better on state assessment tests than they do on a test given nationally.
• Many urban students who pass the tests with a score of level three are just points — or perhaps one right answer — above level two, which is below proficiency.
• In some urban districts, only about half the eighth-graders scoring at level three go on to graduate from high school.
Scores of three and four — which are above proficiency — should reflect skills that will prepare students to succeed not only in high school, but in college or on a job, Tisch said.
Buffalo School Superintendent James A. Williams said Buffalo’s sizable increases in both math and English test scores over the last three years reflect major improvement, but he agreed that they are not necessarily indicators of success later in life.
“ ‘Threes’ are not preparing students for college or work,” he said. “ ‘Threes’ are about teaching kids to read. Now we have to move to the next level. Now we have to teach them critical thinking.”
Bennett sees assessment tests evolving as Tisch suggests.
“I think we’ll add to them, if anything, and take a real good look at the growth of individual students through the years,” he said. “I’ve said repeatedly to superintendents in the state that the real measure is graduation rates.”
Buffalo Teachers Federation President Philip Rumore said assessment tests are valuable when used with a variety of other measures but agreed with Tisch that Albany’s tests are too narrow in content.
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