City math scores are at a record high, with the public schools in a position to meet New York State averages if recent trends keep up.
"New York City students are now getting up to the level of the whole state," Mayor Bloomberg boasted in announcing the scores. "Pretty soon I think we'll be able to do better."
This year's scores rose eight percentage points, with 65% of the city's third- through eighth-graders meeting the standards, up from 57%. The rest of the state gained only six percentage points, moving to 77% proficiency. Only Syracuse showed a bigger gain, but it remains far behind, with just 40% of students meeting the standards.
New York City's progress brings it closer to closing a historic gap with statewide averages. In 2002, the city-state gap for fourth-graders was 16 percentage points, with only 52% of city students meeting the standards, compared with 68% statewide. This year it was just six, as 74% of city students showed proficiency, compared with 80% statewide. The eighth-grade gap fell to 13 points from 18 in 2002.
The state Board of Regents chancellor, Robert Bennett, suggested the city should be a model for New York. "That's our challenge: Wherever there's a best practice, we bring it to scale," he said, adding that the city schools chancellor, Joel Klein, has already begun to work with other state education leaders.
Black and Hispanic students showed the biggest gains. Nearly 60% of the city's Hispanic students met the standards, up from 50% last year; so did 55% of black students, up from 46%.
In addition, for the first time in recent memory, all grade cohorts improved as they moved through middle school. Last year, 61% of this year's sixth-graders were proficient; this year, 63% of them were. Usually, those numbers are reversed: fewer students succeed with each year in the system.
Mr. Bloomberg credited the gains to changes made under mayoral control, such as 150 extra minutes in the school day and an end to social promotion.
He pointed to a Brooklyn school, P.S. 45, where 75% of students met standards, up 23 points from last year. The school's principal, Tracey Lott-Davis, said her students benefited from the 150 extra minutes, which she divides into three 50-minute sessions devoted to intensive math and reading training.
Mr. Bloomberg also cited the school's use of periodic assessments, meant to help teachers adjust their lesson plans to match a changing picture of students' abilities. The assessments will expand citywide next year.
State education officials, meanwhile, credited a tougher state test first piloted last year. Then, the test was cited as the reason math scores declined, but the state education commissioner, Richard Mills, said the tough standards this year pushed schools to work harder. "They did it the hard way," Mr. Mills said. "They paid attention to curriculum."
Critics cautioned not to read too much into the gains. "This requires really much more serious treatment than these little shows that they put on," a former board of education statistical analyst, Fred Smith, said. He said an independent research committee to analyze the scores would clear up concerns about politically motivated spinning.
Researchers from New York University, Columbia, and other local universities have talked with Mr. Klein about building such a committee. The dean of NYU's Steinhardt School, Mary Brabeck, said Mr. Klein has been receptive, but progress so far is slow.
The mayor will continue his schools push today at a Harlem charter school. A former City Council member who held several hearings on Mr. Bloomberg's performance while in office, Eva Moskowitz, runs the school.
Ms. Moskowitz said she plans to thank the mayor for his support of charter schools — and to send him a message: that there is more to education than test scores. She said her academy teaches dance, chess, art, and a joy for learning.
It also produces impressive test scores; 96% of kindergartners read on grade level.
