Grad rate up; college readiness questioned

New and controversial student-performance results from the state Education Department indicate nearly half of Long Island's high-school graduates lack English and math skills that top department officials say are pivotal to college success. The statewide average was 63.3 percent.

Results for the Class of 2010, released Tuesday, show that 51.6 percent of Long Island seniors receiving diplomas last June met the state's criteria for college readiness. The Education Department defines readiness as scoring 80 or better on a Regents math exam and 75 and above on an English exam.

Among the Island's districts, the state data on the new criteria showed a huge disparity, ranging from only 5 percent of students scoring at or above the marks on those Regents exams to 87 percent.

"We don't see this as an attempt to label schools. What this is is an attempt to make students fully competent in a global economy," said Merryl Tisch of Manhattan, chancellor of the state Board of Regents.

Overall graduation rates continued to inch up last year, both on the Island and statewide, the department said.

On the Island, 87.6 percent of students in the Class of 2010 graduated on time, compared with 86.2 percent the year before. The statewide graduation rate last year was 73.4 percent, compared with 71.8 percent the year prior. However, New York continues to rank relatively low among states in graduation rates.

In gauging preparation for college, the state also looks at percentages of graduates receiving Regents diplomas with Advanced Designation. To earn such credentials, students have to complete extra courses, including a year of trigonometry and advanced algebra. On the Island, 50.1 percent of last year's graduates met that goal, compared with 30.9 percent statewide.

Local educators regard as a bright spot the state's increased emphasis on the advanced Regents diplomas. Many Long Island schools have long encouraged teens to go beyond the state's minimum academic requirements by taking the extra courses in math, science and foreign language needed to earn advanced designation.

'The most significant'

"Of all the measures the state has of student learning, it's the most significant," said Carol Burris, principal of South Side High School in Rockville Centre.

Nearly 90 percent of the region's graduates go on to two- or four-year colleges.

"New York has some of the highest performing schools and districts in the country, but today's data makes clear that we have tremendous work to do to reduce the dropout rate, close a stubbornly persistent racial achievement gap and ensure that more of our graduates are prepared for college and the workforce," Tisch said.

Some Island educators reacted with incredulity to the state's performance figures on the Regents math and English exams.

"Anybody who judges a student's readiness for college by results on two exams is way off base," said Michael Cohen, a former Brentwood school superintendent who teaches math at Hofstra University.

Others noted the wide achievement gap between affluent, mostly white districts, and poorer districts with large minority enrollments. In Jericho, Garden City and Rockville Centre, percentages of students earning advanced diplomas last spring topped 80 percent. Hempstead, Roosevelt and Wyandanch were under 5 percent.

"Any look at data can be helpful, but this is not giving us any new information about how students perform," said Lorna Lewis, the East Williston schools chief. "The same schools are at the bottom, and the same schools are at the top. It's really reflective of the resources that schools have available to them."

Problem not just funds?

Not everyone agreed that money was all that mattered.

"Our problem is not so much funding -- it's mismanagement of money across the board," said Denise Baines, outgoing president of Wyandanch's school board. That district was the recent target of a state audit, which found that local officials had exaggerated their financial problems and reported a deficit where none existed.

In Albany, academic experts view students' poor preparation for college as major academic and financial problems, requiring millions of dollars in remediation. The Education Department calculates that roughly a quarter of all first-year students enrolled on college campuses across the state spend some time in remedial courses, mostly for math and writing.

"A high school diploma in New York, unfortunately, is far from an indicator of students being adequately prepared for a career or college," said Jason Brooks, research director for the Foundation for Education Reform & Accountability, a conservative Albany-area think tank.

State education officials agree. But with funding tight, many of them doubt they can impose new graduation requirements mandating more district spending on tutoring.

One proposed requirement being discussed would raise passing scores on Regents English and math exams from the current 65. The math exams typically are administered in ninth grade, and the English exams in 11th grade.

"I think just raising the [passing] scores and keeping what we've got now is not a viable alternative," said Roger Tilles of Great Neck, who is the Island's representative to the Regents.Tilles, like many colleagues, prefers a more comprehensive approach that would increase students' choices of courses and exams. He concedes, however, that the state lacks money for fresh exams and instead recently cut funding for existing tests in foreign languages.