Statewide student test scores should be released sooner, advocacy groups say
State education authorities said they were working as fast as possible to expand their release of test results, but that the task was technically difficult and involved protection of student privacy. Credit: Uli Seit
Two influential New York advocacy groups are pushing for faster public release of students' statewide testing results, following recent news that national scores plummeted during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In August, state education officials announced that school districts on Long Island and elsewhere could begin providing test scores to parents of individual students earlier than in the past. However, those same officials declined to set a date for release of data covering entire districts and the state as a whole.
One private group, the Empire Center for Public Policy, accused the state of holding back information that should be readily available — a charge state officials rejected. The center filed for score results under the state's Freedom of Information Law but said it did not expect a response until January at least.
"New York students have likely suffered unprecedented learning loss due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but we cannot begin to appropriately remedy that loss without knowing the nature and extent of the damage," said Tim Hoefer, the center's president and CEO. "Keeping test scores hidden from the public is certainly not in the best interest of students, parents or taxpayers."
What to know
- Advocacy groups are pushing for release of statewide test results, saying the public needs the numbers so it can judge the extent of educational damage from the COVID-19 pandemic.
- State education officials say they’re working to get the data out as soon as possible, but won’t set a date.
- Some Long Island school districts, meanwhile, are providing parents with scores for their own children.
Empire Center is an independent, fiscally conservative think tank based in Albany.
State education authorities said they were working as fast as possible to expand their release of test results, but that the task was technically difficult and involved protection of student privacy. Data includes scores from English and math tests administered last spring in grades 3-8, as well as science tests given in elementary and middle schools, and Regents exams given mostly in high schools.
"The department is undergoing the labor-intensive process to compile millions of pieces of individual student data and remove all personally identifiable information as required by law," said Emily DeSantis, a state Education Department spokesperson. "As soon as statewide assessment data is available this fall, the department will release it."
On the Island as elsewhere in the state, some school systems already have provided parents with their own children's scores. For example, the 7,000-student Levittown system announced availability on Sept. 14 and provided families with an internet "portal" where data could be obtained. Last year, the information was released locally on Nov. 2.
Levittown schools Superintendent Todd Winch checks test participation results in his office Wednesday. Credit: Brittainy Newman
Todd Winch, superintendent of Levittown schools, described the earlier release as a step in the right direction. He added, however, that his district, like many, relies more on results of standardized tests that are privately published, because such information can be obtained much more quickly.
"The state told us that we could release the information, and we wanted to make sure we released it, because that's the fair thing to do for parents that decided their students were going to take those tests," Winch said.
Proponents of expanded data release said the public needed to see test results for the entire state, as well as for their school districts and neighboring systems, so they can get a sense of how the entire system was affected by class cancellations and student quarantines during the pandemic. The need for transparency was magnified by the fact that federal and state governments are pouring hundreds of millions of dollars in relief aid into public schools, proponents added.
Jeff Smink, deputy director of another advocacy group, The Education Trust-New York, said his organization also felt the state was slow in providing exam results. He noted that such information was virtually unavailable at the height of the pandemic because the state canceled much of its testing as a means of minimizing health hazards.
"No one can really answer that question, how the pandemic impacted kids, even though most of the data we see implies a pretty strong negative effect. It robs the public of the ability to hold schools accountable," Smink said.
The Education Trust is a nonprofit group, headquartered in Manhattan, that focuses on educational needs of students, especially minorities and the impoverished.
On Sept. 1, the National Center for Education Statistics, a federal research agency, announced a steep drop in scores among 9-year-olds nationwide during the first two years of the pandemic. This represented the biggest decline in reading in 30 years, and the only decline in math since federal tests began.
John Hildebrand is Newsday's senior education writer and has covered school news and policy issues affecting Long Island for more than 40 years.
