Letter: New school tests often ambiguous
Passage rates on state tests plunged by more than half in math and nearly as much in English, after the state Education Department moved to more rigorous national academic standards known as the Common Core. Credit: iStock
Understandably, Long Islanders are concerned about the dramatically lower English and math proficiency scores for grade-schoolers ["Lower test scores touch off debate," Letters, Aug. 11]. However, it is important to present another side of this story.
As a sixth-grade teacher in the Harborfields school district, I prepared my students to meet the increased rigor of the new tests, as I have fully adopted the Common Core standards. My students can read closely, decipher challenging vocabulary and text, and compose exemplary essays. What I did not prepare them for were misleading questions and passages, which frustrated and confused many, and brought several to tears.
Questions that rely on ambiguous names and concepts do not test reading or math ability. The three consecutive days of 90-minute tests also included field-test passages and questions that did not count toward students' scores, but took valuable time away from answering scored items.
Regional scoring centers lacked clear-cut guidelines on how to score some questions. The lack of a definitive detailed rubric led to interpretations of the samples, which resulted in grading inconsistencies.
I will continue to work on helping all of my students reach their full potential. Meanwhile, I need the state Education Department to exert the same effort to create assessments (and answer keys) that are appropriate and fair for all students.
Monica Zenyuh, Northport
