09-10 School Report Cards Released: Review of Nanuet District

The 2009-10 New York State District Report Cards were released yesterday by the State Education Department and if you recall, there was a bit of a dustup over the scores because the state changed the method of grading after the tests were already completed. Some districts will see much lower scores than before. Nanuet schools are in good standing with their English language arts (ELA), math, science and graduation scores.

The falling scores are a response to higher grading standards at the national and state level. While the 2010 tests were not much harder, the New York State Education Department increased the “cut score,” the minimum number needed to achieve a certain grade, according to New York City Department of Education spokesperson Matthew Mittenthal.

There are four levels students may score at:

• Level 1: not meeting learning standards
• Level 2: partially meeting learning standards
• Level 3: Meeting learning standards
• Level 4: Meeting learning standards with distinction

On the secondary level, 93 and 94 percent of Nanuet students were meeting English and Math scores, respectively, at or above level 3.

For the younger grades, science was a strong subject with 97 and 94 percent of fourth and eighth graders, respectively, scoring at level 3 or higher. For grades 3-8 in math, 81-88 percent were meeting or exceeding level 3, except for third grade with 72 percent hitting or passing the level 3 mark. ELA was the weakest subject for grades 3-8 with only 61 -75 percent of students scoring at level 3 or higher.

However, the schools are still scoring higher in comparison with the average for New York State public schools. Also, with Rockland Reading launching today as well as PARP (Parents As Reading Partners) beginning soon as well in the elementary schools, the students’ ELA scores should improve.

In the report, a side-by-side bar graph showed the scores from the 09-10 school year versus the 08-09 school year broken down by grade level. Unfortunately, grades 3-8 in the Nanuet schools, along with the rest of the NY schools, the percentage of students scoring in the level 3 and higher range from the 08-09 school year mostly decreased the following year.

Some of the drops were significant such as a 30 percent drop in third grade’s ELA scores of level 3-4 and a 32 percent drop for fifth grade’s ELA scores of level 3-4.

However, not all was negative. There was a 4 percent increase in the number of eighth-graders scoring level 4 in science and an increase in all the score levels at the secondary level in English and math, with the exception of level four scores in math decreasing by 10 percent.

Comprehensive scores for regents are broken down by subject, grade level and school year in the NYS district report card.