New York State is set to lower the level required for students to be classified as ‘proficient’ in math and English tests.
The change, which will affect students in grades three through eight, is a response to the reality that academic standards have slipped since the Covid-19 pandemic.
Last year in New York students performed terribly compared with 2019. In Schenectady, not one eighth grader was considered to be proficient in math.
The change will see the proficiency threshold in tests, known as the ‘cut score’, reduced to ensure more students appear to be in good academic form.
‘Yes, there’s learning loss between 2019 and 2022, but in some ways we don’t want to keep going backwards,’ Perie told the Times Union. ‘We’re at this new normal. So for New York we are saying the new baseline is 2022.’
