Pearl River Schools Still Waiting on State Test Student Reports

The New York State Education Department released the results of the grade three through eight standardized testing in early August, but schools are still waiting for parent reports and more detailed information, which were supposed to go out by the end of August.

"We were told by the regional information center it would be another week or two," Pearl River Superintendent Dr. John Morgano said at the district's board of education meeting Tuesday. "We wrote to the executive director and were told maybe a day or two, so we'll see.

"I wrote to them and said this is ridiculous. We have the data, but the parents don't have the reports. I will contact them every day until I become a real pest. We've been patient enough."

The new state standardized tests have generated questions in Pearl River and across the state due to relatively low numbers of students meeting or exceeding proficiency in Math and English Language Arts, though educators from the individual districts and the NYSED have stated that comparisons to previous years do not hold up because the tests are so different. 

Morgano encouraged parents to attend open houses at their individual schools. One of the things the will learn more about at those are plans in each building to help students better deal with the new tests.

Morgano and Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction Sue Wheeler also spoke about the district's new student management system at Tuesday's meeting. 

Rather than just a superintendent's conference day before classes start as in part years, the district held a professional development day Sept. 3 followed by the superintendent's conference Sept. 4. Much of the professional development day was spent on the new student management system, which is used for tasks such as taking attendance, keeping class rosters and keeping their grade books.

"It houses electronically everything we would have had in a paper folder (for an individual student)," Wheeler said. "They take attendance electronically. They can also access parent contacts. Medical conditions. As we get into the new system, it has a capacity to grow. We can import student test data, so teachers can see the data without going to anothr file."

Morgano said Pearl River had worked with the old system longer than normal to put off the expense of changing, but it was no longer workable. 

"Typically, you don't keep a system more than five years because you grow out of it," Morgano said. "We kept it longer than we probably should have. We had a person who was able to keep writing reports for us. A new system costs a lot. But we got to a point where it was impossible to keep up."