By Kathianne Boniello
Two northeast Queens school districts ranked among the top three in the city on this year’s fourth-grade English Language Arts exam with the most students performing at grade level, the state Department of Education announced last week.
Of the seven Queens school districts, only School District 25 in Flushing and School District 26 in Bayside had 60 percent or more of their students reading at grade level in the 2000-2001 tests, the Department of Education figures showed.
School District 26 had about 81 percent of its students reading at grade level in the 2000-2001 exams, making it the top district in the city, while School District 25 had 66 percent of its students reaching the state standard. Only Manhattan’s School District 2, which had 71 percent of its students reading on grade level, placed higher than School District 25, according to the state figures released May 16.
Students in Queens and throughout the other four boroughs recorded modest gains over last year’s fourth-grade English Language Arts test with a roughly 2 percent increase, city Schools Chancellor Harold Levy said in a news release.
“While these results make it clear that we have a good deal of work to do to ensure that city students are reading on grade, it is significant that our students continue to make gains,” Levy said in a statement.
School District 28 in Jamaica had some 54 percent of its students performing at grade level in this year’s tests, the state figures revealed. Scores released by the state also showed the remaining Queens school districts had less than half of their students meeting grade level on the 2000-2001 English Language Arts exams.
Overall approximately 44 percent of city students performed at grade level in this year’s tests.
The fourth-grade English Language Arts exam was part of the shift toward higher state standards that require all high school students to pass the state’s Regents exams, and all fourth- and eighth- grade students to pass tougher English and math exams.
Test scores are divided into four levels, with the state defining a “grade level” score as any student who achieves a Level 3 or Level 4 rank.
According to the state Department of Education, a Level 3 score is defined as a student “who should pass the Regents exam,” while a Level 4 score is regarded as a student who “exceeds the standards” and is “moving toward high performance on the Regents exam.”
School District 26 has traditionally been the highest performing school district in the city. This year’s fourth-grade ELA exam scores showed some 51 percent of the district’s students performing at Level 3 and 30 percent of the students reaching Level 4 scores on the test, state figures show.
With 44 percent of its students reaching a Level 3 score on this year’s test, School District 25 placed a distant second to School District 26 in Queens, according to state test scores. In that district 21 percent of the students had Level 4 scores on this year’s exam, the state said.
In Jamaica’s School District 28, where more than half the students met state standards, 40 percent of students scored in Level 3 and 15 percent of students reached Level 4, the state said.
In School District 29 in Rosedale, 43 percent of students met the state standard, with 36 percent of students performing at Level 3 and 6 percent of students at Level 4, the state said.
School District 30 in Jackson Heights had about 46 percent of its students performing at grade level in this year’s tests, state figures showed. In that district 37 percent reached Level 3, while 9 percent of the student body scored in Level 4.
Glendale’s School District 24 and Ozone Park’s School District 27 each had 44 percent of students reaching the state standards on the 2000-2001 ELA exam. In District 24 32 percent scored in Level 3 while 12 percent hit Level 4. In District 27, 33 percent of the students achieved Level 3, while 11 percent of students were in Level 4.
Reach reporter Kathianne Boniello by e-mail at Timesledgr@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 146.
