The Debate Over the State’s New, Higher “Proficiency” Bar
The New York State Education Department (SED) maintains that the new grade 3-8 ELA
and Math tests developed by the testing company Pearson assess student performance on
the State’s recently adopted Common Core standards and that changes in cut scores used
to rate a students’ proficiency levels on a scale of 1-4 “more accurately reflect students'
progress toward college and career readiness.”
Descriptions attached to particular test scores do not reflect some absolute “truth” about
what constitutes proficient, below proficient or advanced student performance. In New
York, as in other states, human judgment plays a significant role in determining what
exact score defines the bar for proficiency, and State Education officials can change that
bar from year to year. In 2009, for example, 69% of New York City students passed
State tests in ELA and 82% passed in math. After concluding that the tests were too
easy, the State re-set the bar for passing in 2010, resulting in more New York students
failing the tests.
Some question the methodology the SED used to come up with its new grade 3-8 ELA
and Math proficiency standards and the validity of the “college ready” indicators upon
which they were based.
FURTHER READING
 Andrew Rotherham, "Making the Cut: How States Set Passing Scores on
Standardized Tests," 7/24/06
 Educational Testing Service (ETS), "A Primer on Setting Cut Scores on Tests of
Educational Achievement (2006)
 NYSED press release, "State Education Department Releases Grades 3-8 Assessment
Results," 8/7/13
 Methodological Summary, The New York State (NYS) Testing Program Grades 3-8
ELA and Mathematics Common Core Tests
 Michael Winerip, "10 Years of Assessing Students with Scientific Exactitude," NY
Times, 12/18/11
 Valerie Strauss, "How come officials could predict new test score results?"
Washington Post, 8/12/13
 Diane Ravitch's blog, "Who Set the NY Cut Scores - and What We Still Need to
Know," 8/9/13
 Diane Ravitch's blog, "Warning: NY Aligns Scores to NAEP," 8/6/13
 Valerie Strauss, "NAEP: A flawed benchmark producing the same old story,"
Washington Post, 11/4/2011
 Valerie Strauss, "In defense of NAEP," Washington Post, 2/17/2012
 FairTest, "NAEP Levels Found To Be Flawed"
 Gerald Bracey, "A Test Everyone Will Fail," Washington Post, 5/3/07
 Edward Haertel and Andrew Ho, “Apples to Apples? The Underlying Assumptions of
State-NAEP Comparisons”
 R. Rothstein, R. Jacobsen & T. Wilder, "'Proficiency for All' - An Oxymoron" (2006)