Shrinking gaps

By JOEL KLEIN

In recent weeks, there has been some controversy and confusion stemming from the state's decision to raise the standards for proficiency on its math and English tests. The city's parents should know that these higher standards in no way erase the significant progress our children have already made.
Let me be clear: Raising standards for our kids is absolutely the right thing to do. Mayor Bloomberg and I have called for higher standards for years: We know that if our kids are going to succeed in life, we need standards that set them on a path to being college-ready.
But, as with any major change, this hasn't come without some discomfort in the short term. Because of the higher bar, an actual or "scaled" score that last year was high enough to earn a low "3" rating, or "proficient," may this year only have earned a rating of 2, or "basic." For many parents of kids who found themselves with a lower rating, this news was disappointing and complicated to digest.
But, again, the changes do not mean our kids haven't made real gains.
Unfortunately, instead of seeing this as an opportunity for us all to work harder and raise our game, some opponents of reform have decided to misuse this year's results to undermine the major recent successes of New York City students.
One of several inaccuracies circulating is that we have not been closing the racial and ethnic achievement gap. I'd like to set the record straight.
On both state and national tests, as well as with respect to high-school graduation and college attendance, the Bloomberg administration has made undeniable progress in closing these gaps in our public schools. Our entire student body has made major gains, but African-American and Hispanic students in particular have outpaced the progress of their white peers in the city and nationwide.
First, on the rigorous and respected National Assessment of Educational Performance exams, the city's African-American and Hispanic students have been closing the gap with white students across the nation. Using students' actual "scale") scores, the black-white gap in fourth grade has closed by 9 points in reading since 2002 and 4 points in math since 2003. In those same years, the Hispanic-white gap has closed by 5 points in reading and 6 points in math.
And while those gaps are closing, we're still seeing big gains for all our public school students. For all students citywide, fourth-grade NAEP scores have gone up 11 points in both math and English during the mayor's tenure and 7 points in 8th grade math -- substantially outpacing students in the rest of the state (who were flat) and around the nation.
Nor does the state's decision to alter the definition of "proficiency" in any way change the substantial gains our black and Hispanic students have made in closing the achievement gap on those tests. Since 3-8 testing began in 2006, using scale scores, we've cut the black-white gap by 11 points in English and 5.6 points in math and cut the Hispanic-white gap by more than 10 points in reading and 5 in math.
We've also seen double-digit gains in scale scores for students citywide on the state exams, outpacing students in other big cities in New York. So, again, while the achievement gap is narrowing, all groups of city students are making progress.
Other measures show real progress, too. Our African-American and Hispanic high-school students are also graduating in higher numbers than ever before. We've closed the black-white achievement gap in graduation rates by more than 5 points since 2005 and the Hispanic-white gap by 6 points.
Finally, we've seen a huge increase in the number of African-Americans and Hispanic public-school students moving on to the City University. Since 2002, we've seen a 44 percent rise in the number of African-American students attending CUNY and a whopping 83 percent increase in the number of Hispanic students.
All of these trends paint a picture of steady, sustained progress in closing the racial achievement gap. There is no doubt we have more work to do. But we must also recognize how far we've come and build on that for the future.
Joel Klein is New York City schools chancellor.