Open Letter to the Parents and Educators on inconsistency between 3‐8 proficiency
rates and Regents proficiency rates and graduation rates New York State’s students and educators have made great strides in recent years in the classroom. Statewide four year graduation rates are up from 75% in 2013 to 80% in 2017. Since 2007 the overall graduation rate is up from 68.6%. Also, for black students the four year graduation rate rose from 60% to 69% and for Hispanic students the graduation rate rose from 59% to 68% over the past four years. These increased graduation rates are a testament to the dedication of our educators, students, the families of public school children who are all working together to improve educational outcomes for our students. The increase in the graduation rates since 2013 mean that over 10,000 more students every year are graduating high school on time compared to four years ago. The vast majority of students are passing the high school Regents exams required for graduation and the percent of students graduating with advanced Regents Diplomas is on the rise. This is all great news and shows how hard our educators and students have been working. There is of course more work to do on student performance. Also, there remains a clear connection to the wealth of a community and the academic performance of students. Low need school districts have a 95% four year graduation rate and average need districts have an 88% graduation rate. However, the graduation rate drops to 70% for high need urban/suburban school districts. Sadly this speaks to the unequal access to high quality education programs in many low wealth, high need school districts for far too many children and the need for additional funding for these districts. Nonetheless, the challenges that lie ahead do not diminish the successes that have been achieved in our public schools. Student performance on the state grade 3 – 8 tests is contrary to the vast academic successes at the high school level. 60% of grades 3‐8 students are identified as not proficient on the state 3‐8 ELA and Math exams. Statewide proficiency rates that hover around 40% are wholly inconsistent with the excellent performance levels on Regents exams and with rising graduation rates. It would be reasonable to assume that if students were not proficient on their 3‐8 state exams that they would not be prepared to successfully pass Regents exams. However, this is not the case; for example, in 2016 24% of the 8th grade students that took the 8th Grade Math assessment were identified as proficient, but one year later when most of these students took the Algebra I Regents exam 74% passed. Similarly in 2013, only 31% of 7th graders were proficient on the state ELA exam and four years later in 11th grade, when most of those 7th graders took the ELA common Core Regents exam, the Regents passage rate was 84%. We all know that the long standing Regents exams are high quality whereas the grades 3‐8 exams have been the source of much controversy in recent years. Parents and teachers should be asking why the proficiency rates on the 3‐8 assessments are so low. What is wrong with these assessments? They are clearly not measuring student performance and proficiency levels in an accurate manner. SED has shortened the length of the grade 3‐8 exams from three to two days. This modification was supported by NYSUT and this will improve the test experience for children. However, shortening the length of these tests does not address the issue of how SED determines proficiency levels on grade 3‐8 exams. SED must address the process by which they determine proficiency levels on grade 3‐8 ELA and math exams to properly align the outcomes with Regent exams and graduation rates. Parents, teachers, and all those who care about our public education school children must join together to demand that SED fix this problem. NYSUT Member Benefits - Winter 2018 MB E-Direct Newsletter
I am proud to present to you the Winter 2018 issue of the NYSUT Member Benefits MB E-Direct electronic newsletter. I hope that you will find the content useful and ask that you pass this publication along to as many of your NYSUT contacts and members as possible. Each issue of this electronic publication is put together with great thought and effort as we strive to ensure that we offer helpful information and tips to our members -- an added benefit of NYSUT membership provided at no cost to NYSUT members. We want all NYSUT members to know that membership in this labor union provides access to a variety of Member Benefits-endorsed programs & services available exclusively to them and their families. Click the following link to view this issue of MB E-Direct -- http://online.fliphtml5.com/pwms/isqi/ This publication includes a number of embedded links that will allow you to learn more about our various endorsed programs & services. One of our goals at NYSUT Member Benefits is to reach the maximum number of members, and we have seen that we are most successful with this goal when people like you share our materials with your colleagues and friends. We continue to increase the number of members who are aware of the endorsed programs & services that we offer but still have great potential for growth in this area. We are also pleased that the number of members who participate in our endorsed programs & services continues to grow each year; with your help in forwarding this email and e-newsletter link to your membership, we are confident that this growth will continue in the future as well. Thank you. -- Lynette A. Metz Director, NYSUT Member Benefits Trust CEO, NYSUT Member Benefits Corporation Good Morning,As you may know, the New York State Commissioner of Education released an APPR survey on Tuesday that took everyone by surprise.
We have spent time carefully examining the survey and believe it may lead to unreliable and invalid data due to the way it has been constructed. As a result, we released the following statement Tuesday evening to the press: “The state has had at least six years to listen to the voices of teachers and parents who are angry and frustrated with this broken teacher evaluation system. We don't need any more surveys or delays. This is the year to fix it. Evaluations must be returned to local control with no state mandates.” We will not be sharing a link to the survey through the Member or Leader Briefings or encouraging our members to participate in it. I will be communicating this to the Commissioner. NYSUT continues to advocate for an APPR fix this year. We want a system that restores trust, helps develop teachers and is free of state mandates. Returning APPR to local control is the only answer. Please take this opportunity to share this with message with local presidents again. In Solidarity, Jolene DiBrango Executive Vice President New York State United Teachers 800 Troy-Schenectady Road Latham, NY 12110 |
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