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Long Island Schools show marked improvements on statewide math tests for grades three through eight. Albany educational authorities announced the dramatic improvements this month. Long Island Schools tend to mirror statewide improvements across the board. According to Newsday, Education Commissioner Richard Mills said, “The fact that children are achieving higher standards in the middle grades is especially significant.” Long Island Schools, and many across the nation, have faced the challenge of test scores dropping in the middle school years.
In its second year of reporting steady improvements, Long Island Schools are up in every grade and show impressive results. 85.2% of third graders passed, as opposed to 80.5% last year. And seventh graders increased scores from 55.6% to 66.4%. While not all residents in the Long Island Schools district support mandatory testing, these results are still welcome. New York State has the second largest per pupil spending of the 50 states, and often shows the results in impressive test scores. Even so, New York City districts, like the Long Island Schools, have felt pressure to attain the No Child Left Behind mandate to get all children to a proficient ranking by 2014.
Congressman Steve Israel is pushing for funding for the Keeping Our Promise to America's Children Act to help fund the efforts. Supporting NCLB is costly for Long Island Schools due to lower teacher to student ratios that require more teachers and classrooms, time-consuming but federally mandated paperwork, and the requirement for highly qualified teachers in math and science. While most Long Island Schools' educators support those actions, finding the methods to make them happen has been challenging. Fortunately, with the over $11,000 per pupil funding through New York State, Long Island Schools are more successful than most schools around the nation.
Of courses this isn't always felt by board members and educators of Long Island Schools. Some districts in Long Island Schools had heated budget debates in January over trimming the budget and allocating funds. One major area of concern in Long Island Schools is early intervention and remediation programs. Due to the successes of the third grade after school homework program at lessening the need for Special Education classes, Long Island Schools' educators are hoping for funding for similar projects. Early childhood programs are also in high demand, but didn't receive the desired funding earlier this year. Early childhood classes are credited with helping low income students better prepare for transition to kindergarten and grade school. Still, with the massive increase in math scores for the past two years, Long Island Schools are showing results the rest of the country is still chasing.
Long Island Schools have an admirable goal of getting their students to college. In fact, most mission statements state that academic excellence is the primary goal for each district. In fact, approximately 88% of Long Island Schools graduates enroll in colleges or universities. But what about the remaining 12%? While some don't make it all the way through high school, others would like to enter the world of work, and receive vocational training along the way. Many Long Island Schools students would like to become anything from beauticians to massage therapists, plumbers to electricians, child care workers to welders. Unfortunately, two Long Island Schools, located in the Patchogue-Medford school district and a part of Suffolk County, NY, are experiencing such a drastic cutbacks that they are forced to turn students away from the education they desire the most. In fact, self-employment or entering a trade looks increasingly attractive to students at a time when corporate jobs offer less and less security.
Many Long Island Schools students who want to enter a trade or even own their own business, feel discouraged. Many students are blocked from receiving the training they need to begin their chosen profession. The cash-strapped Patchogue-Medford School District recently informed approximately 60 of these Long Island Schools students that it can't afford to enroll them in BOCES job-training courses next fall, despite state regulations entitling teens to such programs. BOCES (Board of Cooperative Educational Services) offers various programs for general, adult, special, emotionally and medically-fragile Long Island Schools students.
Board members of Patchogue-Medford school district, parents, and students recently met at a monthly board meeting to discuss, in part, the cutbacks to the BOCES program in place throughout New York, and Long Island Schools are no exception.
"Do you realize you are taking this away from the students?" one Long Island Schools student asked members of the district's board of education. She also pointed out that administrators are getting raises in the newly approved budget. The board voted to hold the line against reinstating full funding of the BOCES program.
One of at least 15 parents who attended the meeting to complain about the situation and said that she and other Long Island Schools parents will appeal to the state education commissioner to get their children the training they want.
If forced by the state to reinstate the BOCES option for all students who want it, Superintendent Michael Mostow said the district would have to lay off teachers and raise class sizes that are already too large.
One 11th-grader said many classmates share this view. "They want to work for themselves," said the Long Island Schools student.
School district officials voiced regret over the situation, but added that they have little choice. Patchogue-Medford trimmed its proposed budget, and the cuts included $720,000 in BOCES tuition. Voters have rejected spending plans twice.
State regulations require school districts, including those in Long Island Schools, to provide students with up to two years of BOCES occupational training, free of charge.