You don't have to be much of a mathematician to figure out what the state's scores on a new set of math exams show: When looking at combined scores in grades 3 through 8, while more than 86 percent of students in affluent or low-need districts were at grade level, fewer than one-third of the students in Rochester, Syracuse and Buffalo made the grade.

Union leaders said the striking disparities between rich and poor districts on the grades 3-8 mathematics exams underscore the urgency with which state leaders must work to settle the Campaign for Fiscal Equity school funding case.

"Closing the performance gap starts with making sure that every child and every teacher in every classroom has sufficient resources," said NYSUT President Dick Iannuzzi. "Schools in our urban and small rural districts have been deprived of their fair share of education funding for more than a generation. Closing the achievement gap comes down to eliminating the funding gap."

Just one day before the State Education Department released the math scores, Iannuzzi noted, the Pataki administration argued in the Court of Appeals for the lowest level of funding in a range set by the special master in the CFE case.

"The Pataki administration is wrong," Iannuzzi said. "In education, money does matter."

Grades 3-8 testing

NYSUT Vice President Maria Neira commended teachers on the work they did in the first year of statewide testing under the No Child Left Behind Act, noting that more than 3 million tests in grades 3-8 were administered and graded by teachers across the state. "This was a heavy lift and teachers did a terrific job," Neira added.

The drop in scores was expected, Neira noted, since the new tests reflected recently revised standards. In 2004, the Board of Regents appointed a Math Standards Committee consisting of math teachers and other experts to revise the math learning standards.

Their recommendations, adopted by the Regents in 2005, called for introducing more math content into the earlier grades at the elementary and middle levels. In some districts, especially the more affluent ones, the curriculum shift was well executed. In other districts, educators reported insufficient staff training and communication, Neira said.

At a NYSUT Math Institute last spring, middle-level math educators in particular voiced concerns that they were racing to get through a radically different math curriculum in time for the state's first-ever grades 3-8 math tests in March.

For example, some algebra and geometry content that had been in grades 5-8 was moved to grade 4, and some content that had been in high school moved to grade 8.

State Education Commissioner Richard Mills agreed, noting the 2006 grade 4 and grade 8 math tests were more difficult than tests in previous years, so it is not possible to make direct comparisons between them and the 1999-2005 results in the same grades.

Statewide, math scores in grade 4 dropped by about 7 percentage points and scores in grade 8 dropped by almost 2 percentage points. Nonetheless, the scores in those grades are considerably higher than the scores in 1999, when the first statewide math test was given. In the new tests, 78 percent of students in grade 4 met all the standards compared to 67 percent in 1999. Also in the latest results, 54 percent of grade 8 students met all the standards compared to 38 percent in 1999.

More data to come

In coming months, SED analysts will dissect data to get a clearer achievement picture for students based on race, ethnicity and those with disabilities. With the new individual student data system, schools will soon be able to track students grade by grade and get a comparison of learning from year to year.

Mills noted teachers will soon get more detailed reports outlining students' understanding of key math skills. He said districts will need to focus more intensely on meaningful professional development and beef up funding for proven initiatives like the statewide network of teacher centers.

"Now that the state has the capacity to generate all this data, it is imperative that teachers receive the data in a timely fashion so that instruction and materials can be directed at improving student learning," Neira said.

In addition, she said, more attention has to be paid by SED and districts "to the inputs that make a difference - lower class sizes, appropriate Academic Intervention Services and supports for English language learners and students with disabilities."

- Sylvia Saunders