By Jennifer Medina - EducationNews.org
The results indicated a dismal performance statewide after years of significant gains.
Applying new tougher standards state education officials said Wednesday that more than half of public school students in New York City failed their English exams this year and 54 percent of them passed in math.
The results were in stark contrast to successes that Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg had heralded in recent years. When he ran for re-election in 2009 he boasted of state test scores that showed two-thirds of city students were passing English and 82 percent were passing math.
But state education officials said that performance was misleading because those scores were inflated by tests that had become easier to pass.
The scores released on Wednesday were the first attempt to establish what the officials considered a more trustworthy measure of students abilities.
Merryl H. Tisch the chancellor of the State Board of Regents said she had encouraged teachers and parents to greet the news not with disappointment and not with anger."
Now that we are facing the hard truth that not all of the gains were as advertised we have to take a look at what we can do differently" she said.
These results will finally provide real unimpeachable evidence to be used for accountability."
