New York state test results show rising proficiency in English Language Arts and maths among pupils in grades three through eight, with statewide data indicating notable gains compared with the previous year.Education officials and researchers say the increases coincide with lingering uncertainty about whether improved outcomes reflect stronger learning or adjustments to testing benchmarks used by the New York State Education Department.Statewide proficiency data shows year-on-year increasesData compiled by the Empire Center and published by FingerLakes1.com show that fifty-seven percent of students achieved proficiency in maths, while fifty-three percent met the standard in English Language Arts. In the previous year, proficiency stood at fifty-four percent in maths and forty-six percent in ELA.Out of nearly seven hundred and twelve school districts statewide, four hundred and seventy-one posted gains in maths and six hundred and thirty-four improved in ELA. FingerLakes1.com noted that the prior year saw four hundred and thirteen districts improve in maths and two hundred and ninety-six in ELA.Empire Center president Zilvinas Silenas welcomed the increase but urged caution. “We would love to celebrate this increase in scores,” Silenas said, quoted by FingerLakes1.com, adding that the New York State Education Department needed to clarify whether the results reflected genuine improvement or a redefinition of proficiency standards.School-level outcomes highlight uneven performanceAcross three thousand seven hundred and twelve schools, eighty-nine reached the ninetieth percentile in ELA and one hundred and fifty did so in maths, according to the Empire Center database referenced by FingerLakes1.com. Only two schools, Icahn Charter School One and Special Music School, achieved one hundred percent proficiency in both subjects.Within New York City, District Two in lower Manhattan recorded the highest ELA proficiency at seventy-eight percent, while District Twenty in Brooklyn led maths results at seventy-three percent. Lower outcomes appeared in District Twelve in the Bronx, where ELA proficiency stood at thirty-seven percent, and District Twenty-Four in Queens, where maths proficiency reached thirty-five percent.Regional gaps and economic divides persistOutside New York City, FingerLakes1.com reported that Rochester recorded nineteen percent proficiency in ELA and fifteen percent in maths. Buffalo, Albany, Yonkers, and Syracuse also posted results below the state average.On Long Island, Quogue Union Free School District achieved ninety-four percent proficiency in both ELA and maths. Nearby Fire Island UFSD, despite spending nearly one hundred and fifty thousand dollars per student, recorded forty-eight percent proficiency in ELA and fifty-seven percent in maths among its twenty-one tested students.SUNY Brockport education professor Chris Wilkens pointed to longer-term patterns when discussing the results. “They’re just tools, like a thermometer,” Wilkens said in conversation with WXXI News, explaining that test scores indicate academic health but not underlying causes. Wilkens also linked score declines beginning between 2012 and 2015 to rising smartphone use, citing Jonathan Haidt’s research, and noted that the current school year marks the first statewide year of a classroom ban on personal internet-enabled devices, according to WXXI News.
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