By Kathianne Boniello
Nearly all Queens elementary students outperformed their citywide counterparts on math and reading, the Board of Education said last week, but since 1999 the borough’s children have seen an all-out decline on the math exam and little gain on the reading test.
The test scores for grades 3, 5, 6 and 7 were released by the city Board of Education Friday on both math and reading exams taken by students in April 2001. The tests are referred to as the CTB exams.
Northeast Queens’ School District 26 — one of the highest scoring districts in metropolitan area — topped the borough and the city for both tests, the Board of Education said. In District 26, 69.9 percent of the students scored in the top levels of the math exam and 75.8 percent of those students achieved such scores on the reading test.
With the state’s increased emphasis on higher academic standards in the last several years and more rigorous testing for all New York students, the city’s tests have followed a setup similar to the fourth- and eighth-grade tests, with math and reading exams graded on four different levels.
In general, Levels 1 and 2 are seen as not meeting an exam’s academic standard, while Level 3 is considered passing and Level 4 excelling on a test.
On the CTB-Math test, only School District 27 in Ozone Park, with 28.6 percent, and District 29 in Rosedale, with 29.4 percent, had fewer students score in the top levels of the exam than the citywide average, according to Board of Education figures.
About 31 percent of students citywide scored in Levels 3 and 4 of the CTB-Math test, the Board of Ed said.
After Bayside’s School District 26, District 25 in Flushing had the borough’s next highest scores in math with nearly 54 percent of students scoring in the top levels. District 28 in Forest Hills had 41.2 percent of its students reach Levels 3 and 4 on the math exam, while District 30 in Astoria had 39.1 percent and District 24 in Ridgewood had 32.4 percent.
On the CTB-Reading exam 42.2 percent of city students scored in the top levels. All seven Queens districts had more students score in the highest levels of the reading test than the city average, Board of Ed figures show.
While District 26 in Bayside topped Queens with 75.8 percent of its students scoring in Levels 3 and 4 of the CTB-Reading test. District 25 saw 60.8 percent of its students reach Levels 3 and 4, and District 28 in Forest Hills and Jamaica had 51.2 percent of its students in those levels.
District 30 followed with 48 percent of its students in Levels 3 and 4, while District 29 in Queens Village and Laurelton as well as District 24 each had roughly 45 percent. District 27 in South Ozone Park rounded out Queens with 39.8 percent of its students at Levels 3 and 4.
Reach reporter Kathianne Boniello by e-mail at Timesledgr@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 146.
