Call Results Mixed
UFT: Hold Hype On Test Scores

By MEREDITH KOLODNER

State test scores for city public school students were not as positive as Department of Education officials portrayed them, according to United Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten.

RANDI WEINGARTEN: Tests don't tell story.

Calling the numbers a "good news/bad news story," Ms. Weingarten acknowledged the improvement in eighth-grade English test scores and the overall 2.8-percent increase in grades three through eight when students not proficient in English were taken out of the total.

Overall Scores Flat

But she also noted that with all English Language Learners included, overall test scores showed little change. And she argued that the focus on test prep, while it may increase scores, had a dual effect of taking time away from "real teaching" and "real learning."

"We always embrace good news," Ms. Weingarten said in a statement, "but you have to take a look behind the numbers."

DOE officials emphasized the gains made by English-proficient students in every grade, except third. Overall, 56 percent of these students met or exceeded the test standards, versus 53.2 percent last year.

JOEL I. KLEIN: Signs of lasting progress.

The officials argued that it was important to look at the numbers without ELLs, because a new Federal regulation mandated that those students must take the state exams after living in the country for one year. In the past, they were exempt until they had lived here for three years. The new policy added more than 30,000 city students to the test rolls.

Klein: Gains Are Real

"The results are the latest evidence," said Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein, "that the gains we have made over the past five years are real, significant and lasting."

The UFT president said that she agreed that ELL students should not be tested after one year of English instruction, but she also asserted that students with disabilities should be exempt from the tests, because "there is no educational benefit to them."

Further, Ms. Weingarten argued that if DOE officials were setting aside ELL students' test scores to illustrate what they thought were more accurate numbers, then they should do the same when they are grading and assessing an individual school's improvement.

In March, Mr. Klein announced a plan to hire IBM to build an $80 million computer system, known as Aris, to track students' progress, including their scores on state exams and on six-week assessments. The scores will be used to grade each school, A through F.

"If they are going to pull ELLs out this way," she said, "the city should do it on the school report card as well."

Too Much Test Prep?

Ms. Weingarten also contended that the results were not as impressive when "the almost-exclusive focus on high-stakes testing" was taken into account. A UFT report in April concluded that Teachers were spending an increasing number of hours preparing students for the state exams.

The emphasis on high-stakes testing, the report said, was dragging down teaching standards by sidelining critical thinking skills in favor of test-taking abilities. "Teachers are directed to spend an inordinate amount of time doing test prep, test prep and more test prep," said Ms. Weingarten, "instead of real teaching, which leads to real learning."

But DOE officials, advocates and Ms. Weingarten agreed on one thing: no matter how you spin the numbers, test results that show just over half of third through eighth graders meeting English language standards were far from adequate.

"I'm not remotely satisfied with our current levels of achievement," said Mr. Klein. "We will work as hard as necessary to improve."