NEW YORK SCHOOLS SCORE LOW IN U.S. RANKING
Syracuse Herald-Journal (NY) - Thursday, May 4, 1989
Author: Jonathan D. Salant Washington Bureau
New York education officials said Wednesday they weren't surprised at the state's low ranking in the U.S. Education Department's sixth annual performance chart.
``Obviously, there are educational problems in New York state,'' said state Education Department spokesman Chris Carpenter. ``What's new?
``The commissioner this year has spent extensive time documenting that there are two school systems in this state, one which is largely suburban, affluent and successful; the other largely urban, poor and unsuccessful.''
The U.S. Education Department's ``wall chart'' found that New York was the only state to report a decline in Scholastic Aptitude Test scores last year. The state had a higher dropout rate than all but four other states.
The average SAT score in New York declined by 7 points, to 889 from 894 on a scale of 400 to 1,600. New York was the only state of the 22 that administer the SAT as a college entrance exam to suffer a drop in test scores.
New York ranked 14th in 1988, a decline from 12th in 1987. Nationally, the SAT average was 904.
The decline in SAT scores reflected the increasing number of graduating high school students taking the test, Carpenter said.
He indicated that 72 percent of the state's graduating high school students took the SAT in 1988. That was up from 70 percent the year before.
``We want kids to take the test,'' Carpenter said. ``It means they want to go to college. If that means the overall scores go down, so be it.''
Jay Goldman, a spokesman for the Council of Chief State School Officers based in Washington, D.C., said the SAT was not an accurate indicator of student performance.
``The SATs are taken only by a portion of the eligible students,'' Goldman said. ``We believe that there's much more sense in using what's called NAEP , National Assessment of Educational Progress, for measuring student performance. Next year, NAEP will be administered by a state-by-state basis.''
While SAT scores went down, the state's dropout rate increased, to 37.1 percent in 1987 from 35.8 percent in 1986. That compares to a national average of 28.9 percent in 1987 and 28.4 percent in 1986. The state's ranking dropped as well, to 46th place from 45th place, ahead of only Georgia, Michigan, Louisiana and Florida .
At the same time, the state's per-pupil expenditures increased to $6,497 from $6,011 between 1986 and 1987. The 8 percent increase was greater than the average 6 percent boost nationally, bringing the U.S. mean to $3,977 in 1987 from $3,756 in 1986.
And the state's average teacher salary of $34,500 in 1988 trailed only Alaska, at $40,424, among the 50 states. New York's average teacher salary was $32,000 in 1987. The national average was $28,008 in 1988 and $26,556 in 1987.
``Money alone is not the answer to our education deficit,'' U.S. Education Secretary Lauro Cavazos said at a news conference Wednesday.
Furthermore, 17.9 percent of children between 5 and 17 in the state live in poverty, a higher poverty level than 37 other states.
The high poverty rate helps explain the state's high dropout rate, Carpenter said. In New York City, where most of the poor students live, the dropout rate is 59 percent. In the rest of the state, the dropout rate is 18 percent.
An 18 percent dropout rate would rank New York 10th among the 50 states, according to the U.S. Education Department's wall chart.
While New York's educational performance went down, the nation's school systems as a whole remained stagnant, Cavazos said.
``The good news is that the schools are not worse; the bad news is that we also are not making progress,'' he said. ``We are standing still, and the problem is that it's been this way for three years in a row.''
Cavazos called for individual school districts to set goals. Among those goals are increasing the number of high school graduates, reducing the number of students unable to move up a grade level each year, and providing vocational education to non-collegebound students.
``Governors, chief state school officers, local school boards, district superintendents, educators, parents and other concerned individuals can begin right now to work together to identify and announce specific goals for improving each school district and state to select the benchmarks for measuring progress toward their goals, and to discuss incentives for student, teacher and school improvement,'' Cavazos said.
But Mary Hatwood Futrell, president of the National Education Association, the nation's largest teachers' union, said much of the blame for lack of improvement in education has to rest in the federal government's lap.
Between the 1982 and 1988 federal fiscal years, federal education spending was $7 billion less than it needed to be just to maintain programs at 1981 levels, according to the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.
``It is no mystery that after eight years of eroding federal support for education, particularly for essential programs targeting our ever-growing minority and low-income populations, we find little progress in the achievement of our students,'' Futrell said.
Graphic: Report card
The most recent figures on education in New York State
SAT scores (national ranking)
1987 904 (12)
1988 889 (14)
Teacher salaries
1987 $32,000 (2)
1988 $32,500 (2)
Dropout rate
1986 35.8% (45)
1987 37.1% (46)
Expenditures per pupil
1986 $6,011 (2)
1987 $6,497 (2)
Source: U.S. Education Department
Caption: Graphic: Report card. Herald-Journal chart. (Note: For text of graphic see end of story.)
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