Results for English:

The average scale scores on the English Language Arts test this year were about the same as last year in all grades.

While 53% of Grade 3-8 students across the state met or exceeded the new ELA Proficiency standard, 14% of English Language Learners met or exceeded the new ELA Proficiency standard.  Fifteen percent of Students with Disabilities met or exceeded the new ELA Proficiency standard.

The ELA results for racial/ethnic groups across Grades 3-8 reflect the stubborn persistence of the tragic racial achievement gap. Low-need communities continued to outperform large cities and rural areas in ELA. A smaller proportion of students met or exceeded the new ELA Proficiency standard in the Big Five cities than in the rest of the state.   In New York City, 42.4% of students met or exceeded the English Proficiency standard, while in the Big 4 cities the figure was 29.1%.

Fewer than 40% of the students from economically disadvantaged districts met or exceeded the new ELA Proficiency standard.

In charter schools, 43% of students met or exceeded the new ELA Proficiency standard.

Results for Math:

The average scale scores on the Mathematics test this year were about the same as last year in all grades.  Rapid student gains from previous years leveled off.  Although there may be several possible explanations, we note that 25% to 30% more performance indicators were tested in 2010 than in 2009.

While 61% of all students met or exceeded the new Proficiency standard, 31% of English Language Learners met or exceeded the new Mathematics Proficiency standard.  For Students with Disabilities 25% met or exceeded the new Mathematics Proficiency standard.

The Mathematics results for racial/ethnic groups across Grades 3-8 reflect the stubborn persistence of the tragic racial achievement gap. Low-need communities continued to outperform large cities and rural areas in Mathematics.  A smaller proportion of students met or exceeded the Mathematics Proficiency standard in the Big Five cities than in the rest of the state.  In New York City, 54% of students met or exceeded the Mathematics Proficiency standard, while in the Big 4 cities the figure was 31.1%.

Fewer than half the students from economically disadvantaged districts met or exceeded the new Mathematics Proficiency standard.

In charter schools, 60% of students met or exceeded the new Mathematics Proficiency standard.

Background:

In order to align our Grade 3-8 assessments with a new college-readiness goal, the 2010 Math and ELA Proficiency Standard scores (Level 3) have changed from 650 where they have been set in the past to these scores:

The Level 2 score, renamed the Basic Standard, has been set at a level that gives  students a 75% chance of earning a Regents score of 65, sufficient to earn a Regents diploma.  The 2010 Math and ELA Basic Standard scores have changed from where they have been set in the past to these scores:

The Performance levels for students have been renamed to reflect more precisely for parents, teacher and schools whether a student is below, meeting, or exceeding the Proficiency standard. The new labels are:

Written while waiting for my connecting flight to Vegas at JFK.

Let's talk pros and cons.  For my own site management, I have a ton of pros and very few cons with this recent move.  When I started this site over 3 years ago, I had no plan.  I was looking for a new job and I was totally frustrated with going from website to website looking for the latest teaching jobs.  Equipped with the bare bones knowledge of website scripting language, I installed some software, manually visited a few hundred school districts every day in search of the newest jobs, and posted what I found on teachWNY.  The site began receiving traffic from Google and the other search engines immediately.  It was a pleasant surprise to see my hard work rewarded with visits from job seeking strangers who occasionally clicked on an advertisement, which in turn made me a few dollars a month to cover my website hosting fees.  Fast forward three years and thousands of job postings later to find a young man at a crossroads with his website: too much spam, too many bugs, and too many expired jobs.

The solution presented itself; convert the teachWNY blog into an efficiently run teachWNY.  Some of you have witnessed the ugliness of my progress in the form of broken links, dead feeds, and cracked graphics.  Thanks for your comments!  They have helped me improve the site.  As an administrator, I don't always see the user experience in the same way as someone who visits the site looking for specific information, akin to the way a school building administrator sees things from a different perspective than his or her classroom teachers, who in turn see it differently from the students in the desks and the parents at home.  Thanks for opening my eyes!  Keep me informed of anything that isn't working.

PROS of the new teachWNY:

• NO MORE SPAM - only I can post the jobs.
• NO DEAD JOBS - all jobs are set to expire either at the posted deadline or one month after being posted on teachWNY.
• NO SEPARATE BLOG TO VISIT - you can read all of my drivel in one place now, with more drivel to come.
• CERTIFICATION SPECIFIC CATEGORIZATION - looking for an Elementary Special Education job?  It's easier now.
• SITE SEARCH POWERED BY GOOGLE - It does a great job at indexing content.  Unfortunately, some old stuff is in there right now.
• LOCAL EDUCATION NEWS - I will post some links and write editorials relevant to the job seeker/teacher in WNY.
• MINOR AESTHETIC CHANGES - I think the site looks better and loads faster.

CONS of the new teachWNY:

• You liked the way it was.
• Some of your old links refuse to work.
• Too much like a blog.
• Other things that you are bound to write in the Comments section below - please do, because I want to make this a better place!

In short, the new site is easier for me to run and should be easier for you to navigate.  I'm still scanning the same websites every day looking for new jobs and posting the jobs I find.  Thank you for visiting.  I know that many of you are loyal users and your patronage is appreciated!