WPCNR SCHOOL DAYS. By John F. Bailey. May 24, 2007: A total of 61% of White Plains Eighth Graders passed State English Language Arts Test in 2006-2007, slightly better than the 58% of New York State 8th Graders who passed the tests. The results of the 2007 tests were made public Tuesday in a news conference of the New York State Education Department. The 2006 White Plains Middle School Eighth Graders passed at a rate of 58% so there is slight improvement in the way Mr. and Ms. Teen White Plains are reading when they hit high school.
The performance of the White Plains’ 2007 509 eighth graders declined over four years from when they were fourth graders in 2002-2003 when 68% of them passed the fourth grade English Language Arts Achievement Test. This trend reflects the problem across the state of declining English skills as students progress through the Middle School. The above State Report Card Chart for 2002-2003 shows how this year's 8th Grade White Plains students did on English Language Arts in 2002-2003.
The State Education Department is pleased with this year’s ELA results in Middle School, as a corner seems to have been turned. According to the news release, “Achievement in grade 3 to 8 English has improved overall…Grades 6 to 8 improved. Grade 6 increased by 2.8%, grade 7 by 1.4% and Grade 8 increased by 7.7% statewide.
The state results on the testing of White Plains Middle Schoolers show 64% of 7th Graders passed the ELA, and 66% of sixth Graders passed. The vast majority of the students passing though are in the Level 3 category. Meanwhile in the 5 elementary schools the passing rate on the English Language Achievement Tests through 3rd, 4th and 5th grades, respectively are 68%, 69% and 66.3% which plummet to 61% by eighth grade, despite five years of attention to the problem.
The 3rd grade to 8th grade results provided at this time by the State Education Department do not break out the district scores across the state on an ethnic basis.
