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Opt Outs Could Cost Real Jobs
RVSD Looks At Testing Results & Implications

KYSERIKE – The Rondout Valley Vocal Jazz Ensemble was acknowledged and thanked by RVSD superintendent Rosario Agostaro at the district's November 17 school board meeting. The quartet of Robert Melikyan, Emma Rice, Carly Stirewalt and Savion Hastings-Ward then treated the board and meeting attendees to a rendition of the national anthem, which they'd recently performed before a boys' soccer championship game.

"I hope this shows how music and athletics can have a positive impact," one singer remarked.

The board then heard a presentation on the property tax cap by school business administrator Debra Kosinski in which she explained how the new budgetary tool (or hindrance, as some see it) came into effect in 2011 but is in no way as straight forward as a simple 2 percent limit.

Factors that go into determining the district's budgeting, and exact cap amounts, includes expenditures such as retirement, health insurance, state aid, and other unknowns that a school board cannot control.

Agostaro explained that one thing working against the district is that they are property rich, meaning that local property values are higher than incomes, making it appear that the district is wealthier than it is... which affects its amount of state aid.

Executive director of curriculum and instruction Lisa Pacht then gave a presentation on the state test performance for grades 3-8 and the district's education master plan. Some notable results of the data crunching were that 40 percent of students who opted out of ELA test were Level 1.

Pacht said that about 5 percent of students moved from Level 1 to 2. In the 2013-14 school year there were no Level 4 students in ELA, while in the 2014-15 school year four students tested at that level.

One board member noted that there is no way of knowing how many students simply didn't try so all the numbers presented are meaningless.

"Why are there so many Level 1s?" asked school board member Nicole Parete.

"The whole point of this 3-8 exam is to determine how they're going to do on that Regents exam," Pacht tried to explain.

The meaning of the levels has changed since the introduction of Common Core. Level 1 now means not proficient at all, Level 2 means proficient in grade standards but not yet proficient at Common Core Learning Standards at this grade, Level 3 means students are proficient in standards for their grade, and Level 4 indicates students excelling in standards for their grade, with college and career readiness.

School board and student board representatives had a lot of questions about the tests, including why they are given and what the scores mean.

School board President Rebecca Versace asked, "How does all the data help the administration?"

Another board member asked about test fatigue after three days of testing. Pacht acknowledged that yes, at the end of the test more questions were missed indicating test fatigue.

There were students within a few points of getting a Level 4, Pacht added, and the school just needs to figure out how to get a bit more out of them to get them to that next testing level.

Board member David O'Halloran had many questions about how the cut off points for the different proficiency levels worked and changed.

Student board member Lauren Rubino, a senior, asked if there was any way the district can opt out of the testing as a whole. Agostaro replied that such opt outs could mean the loss of his and the whole school board's jobs if they were to encourage such action among students.



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