State, County Struggle with Low Reading Test Scores

By DARLA M. YOUNGS
OTSEGO COUNTY

New York State has recently come under fire for fourth grade reading scores that fall short of the national average. Equally as troubling, fourth grade reading scores for children in New York dropped six points last year, double the national average, on the National Assessment of Educational Progress. According to a recent article in “The New York Times,” that’s the one test that allows for comparisons among states. New York was tied for 32nd in the nation in reading test results.

The NAEP reading assessment was administered in 2022 to representative samples of fourth- and eighth-grade students in the nation, states, the District of Columbia, Department of Defense schools, and 26 participating large urban districts. It included literary and informational texts to assess students’ reading comprehension skills.

Thirty states and jurisdictions showed a decrease in fourth-grade reading average scores from 2019 levels, while 22 saw no significant change. No states or jurisdictions scored higher than the 2019 figures. The average reading score for fourth-grade students in 2022 was three points lower compared to 2019, the previous assessment year. The 2022 average score was not significantly different compared to the first reading assessment in 1992, according to the NAEP. Louisiana, Alabama (+2) and Hawaii (+1) were the only states showing a positive score-point change last year. The most significant score-point drops were seen in Delaware (-9) and Virginia (-10).

Fourth grade English Language Arts standardized testing for the 2021-2022 school year indicates that, collectively, Otsego County schools fall below the New York State average. The county weighted average in grade four ELA proficiency (level three and four test results) was 32%, 10 percentage points less than the state average of 42%. Post-COVID results in grade four were down across the board from the 2018-2019 averages, at which time ELA proficiency was 48% and 41% for the state and county, respectively.

ELA grade eight averages were at 50% in 2021-2022 for New York State (up from 48% in 2018-2019), while the county weighted average was just two points lower in 2021-2022, dropping to 39% versus 41% in 2018-2019.

While the fourth grade weighted average for Otsego County overall was lower than the state average, two schools—Cooperstown and Oneonta—recorded higher proficiency levels than the state average, at 49% and 45%, respectively. At the eighth-grade level, three schools outperformed the state average: Cooperstown with 65% proficiency, Edmeston with 64% and Morris with 55%.

Countywide trends for fourth- and eighth-grade math proficiency levels were closer to that of the statewide averages. While the county weighted average for grade four math scores was 35% in 2021-2022, eight percentage points lower than the state average of 43%, the county average in 2018-2019 was slightly ahead of the state—49% versus 48%. Eighth-grade math students in Otsego County in 2021-2022 matched the state’s proficiency level at 24%. The New York State average in 2018-2019 was just four points higher than the county weighted average—33% versus 29%.

Two Otsego County schools scored higher than the 2021-2022 state average in fourth-grade math proficiency, Cooperstown at 58% and Richfield Springs at 43%. Eight county districts scored ahead of the state level in eighth-grade math—Cherry Valley-Springfield, Cooperstown, Edmeston, Gilbertsville-Mount Upton, Laurens, Morris, Otego and Worcester. Morris more than doubled the state average, at 52% versus 24%.

Full details on Otsego County school data can be found at New York State Education Department website, at data.nysed.gov.

The state cautions, “Due to the ongoing impacts of COVID-19, it may not be appropriate to compare 2021-22 NYS standardized assessment results with results from prior years.”

However, while the data does show drops in proficiency rates from 2018-2019 to 2021-2022, this is not the case in all categories or for all schools. Proficiency levels for Worcester Central School, for instance, improved across the board in both grade four and grade eight ELA and math testing. Other notable changes in performance include Oneonta’s grade four ELA scores (increasing to 45% proficiency in 2021-2022 from 22% in 2018-2019) and Gilbertsville-Mount Upton’s grade four ELA scores, up 11 points in 2021-2022, while Cherry-Valley Springfield’s grade eight math proficiency scores jumped 27 points in 2021-2022 over 2018-2019.