NEW SCOTLAND — Voorheesville students in grades 3 through 8 scored well on their New York State assessments, according to Karen Conroy, the district’s curriculum director. She presented her own assessment of the data to the school board last week, but local residents questioned how the district would use the data, and how it would evaluate students who had opted out of the controversial testing earlier this year.

English and math proficiency

Conroy said that she compared student scores in Voorheesville to scores in suburban Niskayuna, Guilderland, Bethlehem, and North Colonie. She also compared them to scores statewide.

Voorheesville students had the highest proficiency for English language arts in grades 4, 5, 7, and 8, she said. In grades 3 and 6, student scores were similar to those in the suburban cohort.

In math, students scored well across the board; in grade 5, about 39 percent of students earned a Level 4, or the highest score. In the suburban cohort, 28 percent of students earned a Level 4, while state score averages hovered at 16 percent.

Conroy said that, based on declining scores a few years ago, the middle-school faculty re-examined and revised its approach to math and the Common Core requirements.

“We achieved our goals,” Conroy said.

Conroy said that the opt-out movement may have skewed her data for the middle school English scores. Scores for students in grades 6 and 7 were similar to those in the suburban cohort, she said. Scores for grade 8 students were significantly higher than those in the suburban cohort or across the state, with 41 percent of Voorheesville eighth-graders earning a Level 4.

The same group of students last year, as seventh graders, saw only 12 percent achieve a Level 4 on the state English assessment. Within that group, 20 students opted out of taking the English exam in 2015, leading to the unusually high rate of Level 4 scores, Conroy said. 

Results were also skewed for grade 8 math scores, as the statewide data includes scores of accelerated students; in Voorheesville, Conroy said, accelerated students did not take the math assessment.

Conroy said that grades 4, 5, 7, and 8 have increased their English scores and moved ahead of the suburban cohort by 10 points or higher than previous years.

Students in grade 6 saw a decrease in English proficiency from 52 percent down to 45 percent, she said, while grade 3 decreased from 58 percent to 47 percent over a two-year period.

Addressing all needs

“How are our twos?” asked one audience member.

If the students scoring on levels 3 and 4 are above average, a resident said, Voorheesville students scoring on levels 1 and 2 are below average.

Another resident said that the school district, by using the state assessment results, is making data-driven decisions based on tests showing results based on income.

In July, a Buffalo newspaper examined test results and graduation rates available from the New York State Education Department from 2011 to 2014, and named Voorheesville the wealthiest district in the state after finding that only 3.7 percent of the children in Voorheesville live below the federally designated poverty line.

According to the New York State Education Department, Voorheesville is in the lowest of six need/resource capacity categories.

School board President Timothy Blow said that, by looking at scores from year to year, the district can use assessments to see “How’s this group doing?”

Blow said that the district uses standardized tests to compare and make sure that the district is addressing its own program.

“There’s a lot of politics involved here,” he said. “We need to spend more time…using a measurement to see how we can do better.”

“Do we have another way to see if they need resources?” asked one resident.

Conroy said that the district uses reading and other tests, and in-classroom assessments for students who do not take the standardized state tests.
Blow called the alternative testing “more a local benchmark than standard.”