NY Hits New Pandemic Low on Student Testing

New York faced some eye-popping state test scores last year. Less than half of New York students in grades 3 through 8 scored at or above grade level in math and English. Worse yet, no eighth grader in Schenectady passed the math test. These abysmal scores demonstrate that schools and districts across the country still face the daunting task of pandemic academic recovery. Students’ substantial pandemic losses are proving durable, and the road back to pre-pandemic achievement will be hard won, if it can be won at all. Exacerbating schools’ challenges is that promising solutions are difficult to enact properly. Tutoring is a promising tack, but very few students actually use it. Extending learning time is also promising, but rare. Modest voluntary pushes to extend time have met stiff resistance, and just one state — New Mexico  —has done so at scale. The road to real pandemic recovery contains few shortcuts. Unfortunately, New York state is trying to find one anyway — announcing last month they will lower the proficiency thresholds on most end-of-year assessments.