The effectiveness of one set of standardized state tests should be questioned because students are being asked to perform well on a generic test that asks questions that may not reflect what they are being taught in their local school district' s curriculum. This is like asking many students to put a square peg into a round hole. Local school districts must be given more control over implementing new standards. Students in affluent and suburban districts performed better on tests than students in urban and poorer school districts. Students attending the other school system are expected to make the same grade, but are too often asked to learn with inadequate resources in overcrowded hovels with outdated textbooks and crumbling classrooms.
Schools look different from one community to another.
So it should be no surprise that in communities where violence, drug abuse, poverty, hunger and societal problems are pervasive, these problems will be reflected in student academic performance. Just as education in New York is a tale of two public school systems, it is a tale of two economies as well. Yet New York is saying that disadvantaged and privileged students will be required to meet the same highly ambitious standards. Students who fail to pass Regents exams will be denied diplomas. We need to demand higher standards of achievement for all students to prepare them for the jobs of the future.