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44 New York School Districts Recognized By Standard & Poor's for Narrowing Achievement Gaps

Posted on: Tuesday, 23 August 2005, 12:00 CDT

NEW YORK, Aug. 23 /PRNewswire/ -- Standard & Poor's School Evaluation Services announced today that it has identified 44 New York school districts for significantly narrowing the gaps in achievement between black, Hispanic or economically disadvantaged students and their higher-performing classmates while simultaneously raising the average proficiency rates of the student groups being compared, such as black students and white students.

To be recognized in Standard & Poor's analytical report, school districts must:

* serve all grades K-12; * enroll 30 students, on average, per student subgroup being compared, per grade; * reduce the achievement gap in overall reading and math proficiency (RaMP) rates by at least 5 percentage points between the 2002-03 and 2003-04 school years; and * simultaneously raise the RaMP rates of both of the subgroups being compared over this same period.

"Closing the achievement gap is one of the most persistent challenges in American education today," said William Cox, executive managing director of Standard & Poor's School Evaluation Services. "Given the complex nature and extreme difficulty in closing these gaps, Standard & Poor's believes it is important to pay tribute to those school districts that have made progress in this area."

The school districts in New York identified by Standard & Poor's are: Albany City School District, Arlington Central School District, Barker Central School District, Bedford Central School District, Binghamton City School District, Clarkstown Central School District, Cohoes City School District, Copiague Union Free School District, East Hampton Union Free School District, East Islip Union Free School District, East Meadow Union Free School District, Gowanda Central School District, Grand Island Central School District, Half Hollow Hills Central School District, Herkimer Central School District, Hicksville Union Free School District, Horseheads Central School District, Hudson Falls Central School District, Jamestown City School District, Lawrence Union Free School District, Levittown Union Free School District, Lyons Central School District, Maine-Endwell Central School District, Malverne Union Free School District, Massena Central School District, Medina Central School District, Middletown City School District, Mohawk Central School District, Monticello Central School District, Mount Vernon City School District, Nyack Union Free School District, Phoenix Central School District, Pine Bush Central School District, Shenendehowa Central School District, Sherrill City School District, South Glens Falls Central School District, South Jefferson Central School District, South Lewis Central School District, Troy City School District, Union Free School District of the Tarrytowns, Wallkill Central School District, Washingtonville Central School District, Waverly Central School District and Whitney Point Central School District.

The following school districts were recognized for narrowing the Hispanic- white achievement gap: Albany City School District, Bedford Central School District, Binghamton City School District, Clarkstown Central School District, Copiague Union Free School District, East Hampton Union Free School District, Half Hollow Hills Central School District, Hicksville Union Free School District, Jamestown City School District, Lawrence Union Free School District, Middletown City School District, Monticello Central School District, Mount Vernon City School District, Pine Bush Central School District, Troy City School District, Union Free School, District of the Tarrytowns, Wallkill Central School District and Washingtonville Central School District. Hicksville Union Free School District, Union Free School District of the Tarrytowns and Wallkill Central School District have the added distinction of narrowing the achievement gap between economically disadvantaged students and non-economically disadvantaged students as well. In addition, Lawrence Union Free was recognized for narrowing the black-white achievement gap.

The remaining school districts were recognized for narrowing the achievement gap between economically disadvantaged students and non- economically disadvantaged students.

Standard & Poor's identified nine school districts for narrowing their achievement gaps for two consecutive years. They are: Albany City School District, Copiague Union Free School District, Gowanda Central School District, Grand Island Central School District, Hicksville Union Free School District, Jamestown City School District, Malverne Union Free School District, South Glens Falls Central School District and Union Free School District of the Tarrytowns.

To see how many percentage points each district has narrowed these gaps, reporters should consult the analytical report on New York's achievement gaps at http://www.schoolmatters.com/

Standard & Poor's developed this analysis to recognize those school districts that have made significant improvement in reducing achievement gaps and to illuminate school districts that may serve as appropriate benchmarks for educators in other school districts in the state that are searching for ways to narrow their own achievement gaps while raising the performance of all of their students.

Achieving proficiency in reading and math for all students-not just some- by 2014 is one of the goals of the federal No Child Left Behind law.

For the purposes of this analytical report, academic performance was determined by using RaMP, which is the aggregate percentage of students within school districts scoring proficient or better on the state's reading and math tests.

Cox said he also hoped that Standard & Poor's analytical report sheds light on the power of using data to probe for diagnostic insights that can help improve educators' decision making.

Standard & Poor's conducted its analysis using data obtained from SchoolMatters.com.

SchoolMatters.com is a free public service sponsored by the National Education Data Partnership, a collaboration among the Council of Chief State School Officers, Standard & Poor's School Evaluation Services and the CELT Corporation. The National Education Data Partnership is generously funded by The Broad Foundation and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

The list of school districts identified as significantly narrowing the achievement gap and the analysis used to identify them can be found on the New York homepage of http://www.schoolmatters.com/.

Standard & Poor's

CONTACT: Susan Shafer, +1-212-438-2193, or Jason Feuchtwanger,+1-212-438-6042

Web site: http://www.standardandpoors.com/http://www.schoolmatters.com/

Source: PRNewswire

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