Tougher state academic standards for students announced over the summer are among the top challenges facing school administrators as classes begin this month. Both the Irvington and Tarrytown School Districts saw their students’ test scores fall based on the new New College-Ready Proficiency Standards, as they are labeled by the New York Department of Education.

While the scores don’t indicate that students are learning less, they do mean that districts will have to evaluate how they will better meet the new requirements. The new standards were high on the agendas of both districts’ Boards of Education meetings late in August. For the Public Schools of the Tarrytowns, with many English language learners, the new requirements, focusing on math and English, are a problemati hurdle to clear.

The statewide tests results for third through eighth grade pupils from the last school year, released recently by the state’s Education Department, showed striking drops below the newly established passing grades. The changing standards for scoring came after the state found that about 25 % of New York students going on to college needed remedial help in order to cope with college courses, even though they had passed the Regents exams. That data reportedly was collected from students entering SUNY schools.

“The drop here is proportionate with the drop statewide, “Tarrytown Schools Superintendent Dr. Howard Smith said about the percentage of students falling below the passing test standards. “Those (districts) with the highest number of students under the standards were school districts with a high incidence of disadvantaged students and more English language learners.”

Under the new testing values, the percentage of students in Westchester County who measured below the standards for English studies rose to 36 % from 16 % in 2009. While just 10 percent of students tested in 2009 for math proficiency were below the old state standards, the figure ballooned to 31 % in 2010.

Smith pointed out that the percentage of his districts’ students, grades three to eight, meeting the new English proficiency standards, was now at 54%, compared to the state average of 53%. Had the old scoring standards been used the Tarrytown figure would have increased from the year before to 81%, he said. Math test scores showed comparable results.

Based on the prior requirements, Smith observed that, “We have experienced dramatic growth in the achievements of our most struggling students, the English language learners.” He said those who had “demonstrated efficiency doubled,...and the gap between the English speakers and non-speakers was rapidly closing. “There is a greater proportion of students in districts like ours, who had worked hard and gotten just over that threshold, and who were the most vulnerable when they raised the new standards.”

“It is frustrating for us on a number of levels,” he explained. “We were defying the statistical odds in 2009. We hit all our targets for English language learners, special education, and for the school population as a whole, we hit everyone of the targets set every year. Demographically, for a district such as ours for that to happen is an achievement.”

“This is going to be high on our radar screen, because there are so many changes that accompany it,” Irvington School Superintendent Kathleen Matusiak said. “It includes references about teacher’s and principles’ evaluation and compensation tied to students’ achievements. It is going to be a learning curve for us.”

State statistics showed that Irvington’s eighth grade class had a 96 % English proficiency level in testing for 2009, while those with passing scores fell to 76% for the later tests judged under the new 2010 standards.

Albany mandated curriculum changes are not expected to come until next year, but the tougher test scoring will be in effect this school year.

“The clock is ticking, “ Dr. Smith said. He noted that the data had to be analyzed, and then decisions made. A three-inch thick loose leaf book with pertinent data lay on his desk during an interview. How the changes relate to personnel, teacher staffing, class size and the budget is yet to be determined. “There is no one automatic solution,” Smith said.

The Tarrytown District also must deal with the arrival of an unusually large number of kindergarten pupils, according to Smith. This year’s kindergarten registration, totals 234 children, a large increase from the average of “around 198,” he stated. That surge comes just as the Tappan Hill school, which housed kindergarten classes, has been closed down in a budget-cutting move, with pre-kindergarten and kindergarten classes have been moved to the John Paulding School. The Morse School will include first and second grades, with third grade shifting to Washington Irving, which will now house grades three to five.

Matusiak noted Irvington has developed a number of new programs , including a new reading curriculum.

“We are definitely going to see a statewide curriculum, and in many ways that is not a bad thing,” Matusiak said, adding that “while every district works hard to develop its own curriculum, it might be worthwhile having consistent expectations in all districts. She believed that the proficiency scoring changes, “raising the bar” were commendable, but now that the rules have changed at the 11th hour, with little “heads-up” from the state, it makes it more difficult for administrators and teachers.

A similar critique came from Mimi Godwin, president of the Tarrytown District School Board. “I find it very puzzling and upsetting that they are grading last year’s testing based on different standards that had not been articulated, and we are not getting the individual student’s scores until late September,” she said. “ Parents are very concerned. Dealing with this will not be an easy task,” she noted, indicating that it would likely impact next year’s budget, requiring more teachers for remedial work.

“This whole business by public policy makers,” Smith said,” is based on the assumption that every student should be prepared to go on to college level work , and the real question is this in the best interest of public education? We have to be sure what we do is also the best for our students.”