Common Core: Who’s On Track For College And Who Is Not?
Within weeks, the New York state Education Department will release results from the second round of new math and English tests, and tens of thousands of parents will again try to decipher the state’s 1-4 scoring system.
How does the state determine the crucial break between a 2, which means that a student is not quite proficient in, say, fifth-grade math, and a 3, which signifies that he or she is on track for college?
These scoring scales were set last summer by a group of 95 educators that the state gathered at a hotel in Troy for several days. Teachers, administrators and college professors from across New York signed confidentiality agreements and were given the task of setting the cuts between 1 and 2, 2 and 3, and 3 and 4 for the new tests. But the scores would be widely questioned and even ridiculed after one-third of New York students were deemed to be on pace. …
The Journal News obtained the list of panelists from the Education Department after months of wrangling and sought to contact all 95 who served. In recent weeks, nine panelists agreed to telephone interviews, five emailed statements or answers to questions and four agreed to describe the process but asked not to be identified.