Results of New Testing Standard Could Complicate Bloomberg’s Final Months
By JAVIER C. HERNÁNDEZ, NY TIMES
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Michael R. Bloomberg has staked much of his reputation as the mayor of New York City on improving students’ test scores, and has trumpeted gains in math and reading as validation of his 12-year effort to remake the city’s schools.

But the mayor’s telling of history is poised to receive one of its most vigorous challenges yet on Wednesday, when New York State is expected to report drastic drops in student performance across the state because of a new set of tougher exams.

In New York City, the proportion of students deemed proficient in math and reading could decrease by as many as 30 percentage points, city officials said, threatening to hand Mr. Bloomberg a public relations problem five months before he is set to leave office.

Already, many of Mr. Bloomberg’s rivals — the teachers’ union, parent groups, and several of the Democratic candidates vying to succeed him — have begun to use the prospect of a steep drop in scores to call into question the mayor’s record on education.

The United Federation of Teachers on Friday released a 1,000-word memo, in part blaming Mr. Bloomberg for poor test results, saying he had not done enough to train teachers for the new standards, known as Common Core.

But City Hall has fiercely rejected those claims, and on Sunday the schools chancellor, Dennis M. Walcott, fired back. He said that a decline in scores was inevitable as part of a switch to more rigorous standards, and that it would take several years before students performed at high levels. Mr. Walcott, who has repeatedly criticized labor officials and mayoral candidates this election season, called the union’s efforts “despicable.” He urged the public to look at the totality of Mr. Bloomberg’s record, citing improvements in graduation rates.

“This is about our students and the responsibility to prepare our students for the rigors of the 21st century,” Mr. Walcott said in an interview with The New York Times, which he requested.

As his mayoralty winds down, Mr. Bloomberg has sought to burnish an image as a savior of a school system rife with racial and socioeconomic disparities.

But several of the Democratic candidates for mayor have rejected that portrayal of the mayor, seizing on anger among some parents rankled by what they say is his unilateral approach to governing. Some candidates have pledged to end some of Mr. Bloomberg’s signature policies, including his A-through-F grading system for city schools.

One candidate, Bill de Blasio, the public advocate, said on Sunday that the latest test results would be a “major wake-up call.”

“We can’t keep working at the margins and focusing on a handful of niche schools,” Mr. de Blasio said in a statement. “We need a game-changer to raise outcomes for kids across the board.”

William C. Thompson Jr., another Democratic candidate, said the city should devote more resources to helping teachers with the new standards, echoing the position of the teachers’ union, which has endorsed him.

“The current administration has forced teachers to implement new standards without giving them the curriculum they need to do it successfully,” Mr. Thompson, a former city comptroller and Board of Education president, said in a statement. “Tests should not be gotcha moments.”

The city said it had spent three years developing curriculum and was offering additional training to teachers on the new standards this summer. The Common Core standards, adopted by 45 states and the District of Columbia, have garnered praise for their emphasis on free-form thinking, but they have met resistance in some corners, including from conservatives skeptical of national standards, and parents wary of testing.

The outcry facing Mr. Bloomberg may soon confront public officials across the country; many states are expected to administer Common Core exams starting in the 2014-15 school year. New York was one of the first states to create tests aligned with the standards, but the exams were met with mixed reviews when they made their debut in April. Teachers said they had not received adequate preparation, and some students said the tests were too hard.

The exams required students to complete more open-ended questions and analyze lengthy passages of text, much of it nonfiction. The tests demanded a deeper understanding of a narrower set of topics and analysis previously reserved for higher grades.

Advocates of Common Core acknowledge that scores may drop initially, but say that over time the new standards will help students develop better critical thinking skills.

The Common Core exams replaced New York State tests that critics said had created a culture of rote memorization. In 2010, responding to complaints that scores had become inflated, the state tests were changed and made harder to pass, prompting a similar round of questions about claims of progress. Last year, in New York City, 47 percent of students in the third through the eighth grades were deemed proficient in reading, compared with 60 percent in math.

The city has said it will account for the sharp decline expected this year, so that teachers and students are not unfairly punished.

Aaron M. Pallas, a professor of sociology and education at Columbia University, said the changing standards would make it difficult for the public to judge how schools were performing.

“The fear is that the lower scores are going to lead to the perception that all of a sudden our schools are doing worse, our teachers are less effective,” he said. “Neither of those is true. This is just a much higher bar being set for judging whether students are on track for college and career readiness.”