Student performance on standardized tests is a good predictor for success at the high school level. Students who do not perform well at the primary level can be identified early, and an intervention process can begin to help them. Many otherwise successful students experience test anxiety or struggle with test-taking throughout their school careers. Additionally, test results provide the student, teacher and parent with an objective report of individual student strengths and weaknesses in a variety of skill areas. The testing program helps to determine whether students really have learned what they were taught. The test results also help schools focus on ways to improve teaching.
The Board of Regents has established tight rubrics and guidelines for scoring standardized tests in order to maintain grading consistency across schools and districts. Teacher-scorers receive thorough training and are monitored for consistency in their scoring and their understanding of the scoring guides. This training ensures the accuracy of student scores, and gives teachers the opportunity to be more familiar with the high standards of performance expected of students. At least three scorers must review each test taken by students in the District, and back-readers review the graded test papers against exemplary responses or anchor papers provided by NYS to ensure C-PP grading is aligned with other districts state-wide.
Scoring and grading processes are particularly rigorous on the Math and ELA tests, as they are considered the gateway subjects, and necessary for success in other areas such as Science and Social Studies. In these subjects, test papers are randomized across the District to create a blind grading environment, in which teachers, for the most part, are not grading the tests of students they know. However, exacting rubrics and teams of graders exist for each standardized testing subject area.
