The disjuncture between raw scores and pass rates in New York State public schools: Turning success into failure

This paper demonstrates that ‘failure’ is not a direct reflection of student knowledge. Using five years of New York State school-level data, we compare passing rates to raw-scores. We find, first, that when ‘cut scores’ are raised, more students fail even if raw scores are increasing. Second, increasing cut scores disproportionately fails more poor students than non-poor students, despite that poor students have the fastest rates of raw score improvement. Third, raised cut scores transform the smallest raw score gaps between high- and low-poverty schools into the largest passing gaps. Thus, while students in poor schools know more than they did previously, and although they have learned at superior rates, they are recast as the biggest ‘failures’ they have ever been.     

公平与优质:纽约市公立中小学教育政策解析

纽约市教育局通过解决择校问题、保证教育经费、保障弱势群体的教育权等多方面政策举措,推动纽约市公立中小学教育的公平发展,并在注重教育公平的同时,通过一系列法案和举措来提升教育质量,注重天才培养,力图在该市公立中小学教育发展的进程中兼顾公平与优质。