New York Eighth Graders Show Gains in Reading

NY Times ^ | May 23, 2007 | DAVID M. HERSZENHORN

[neverdem]

The number of eighth graders reading at grade level or above in New York State climbed impressively this year for the first time since 1999, when the state adopted tougher educational standards and its modern testing system, according to scores released yesterday from the annual statewide English exam.

The eighth-grade results showed the most clear-cut advances in a year in which students in all tested grades, third through eighth, demonstrated better reading ability, including overall gains by students in New York City, where Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has made education a cornerstone of his administration.

The results were complicated, however, by a new federal requirement that the exam be administered to all students who have been in school in the United States for at least a year, even those who have yet to learn English.

Because of the change, nearly 40,000 more children with limited English ability, most of them in New York City, took this year’s test than in 2006, creating an appearance of declining scores in Grades 3 and 4. When those students’ results were factored out to make the numbers comparable to last year’s, officials said there was slight improvement.

The sharp increase in the proportion of eighth graders reading at or above grade level statewide, to 57 percent from 49.3 percent, provided a first spark of hope that school districts were beginning to turn around a long record of academic failure in middle school. Scores also improved in the sixth and seventh grades though more modestly.

It was the first time since the modern testing system was adopted in 1999 that more than half of the state’s eighth graders showed an ability to read proficiently.

“We have deplored low performance in middle grades in the past,” said the state education commissioner, Richard P. Mills, at...

[neverdem]

Gains in Reading Proficiency

[unkus]

Hitlery will take credit for this.

[Fido969]

Hmmm... New York Times.

So I should assume that the OPPOSITE is true?

[moonman]

They forgot to mention that the 8th graders are 17-29 years old and doing 10-20 in Attica.

[ml/nj]

One wonders what "grade level" is these days. When I was in a New York State eighth grade (non-honors, or otherwise distinguished) "English" class (many years ago), I recall that we had to read Twain's Huckleberry Finn and Shakespeare's Tempest and maybe eight other works. I was already a daily NYT reader for four or five years by that time. And I was just a so-so English student, happy when I would get a B-.

ML/NJ