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NEW ROCHELLE, N.Y., - Parent Juan Lopez has two chidren in the New Rochelle School District and strongly believes that good scores on the state English and math tests are a result of strong teaching within the school district.
The results of the tests for third-through-eighth graders were released this week.
"It's a good school," Lopez said about Columbus Elementary School, where his son Brian attends. "The teachers are good for my son," he said. "It's wonderful for the kids."
New Rochelle students scored higher on the tests in the lower grades, with fourth graders doing best on the English Language Arts (ELA) exam -- 70.7 percent at or above minimum standards. In math, it was the fifth-grade students who did best, with 78.6 at or above minimum standards.
In the English section, 63.7 percent of the third-grade students were at or above the minimum, among fifth graders, 64.1 percent scored at or above minimum. In the upper grades, the numbers were lower, with 57.4 percent in the sixth grade, 43.1in seventh and 47.3 in the eighth grade.
On the math tests, the trend was similar. Among third-grade students, 70.1 were at or above standards, while 77.5 percent of fourth graders did the same. In the sixth, seventh and eighth grades, the percentage at or above standards were 61.3 percent, 68.6 percent and 53.1 percent, respectively.
The state has results for all distrcts and individual schools posted on its website.
The New Rochelle School District did not comment on the scores Tuesday, saying it wanted to study the scores and make a better assessment toward the end of the week.
Lorayne Carbon, who has nieces and nephews in the New Rochelle School District, does not see any benefit from students taking standardized tests.
Carbon, an educator at Sarah Lawrence College, also feels that test higher scores are used as a way to attract residents to the city because of good overall results.
"They don't improve much" Carbon said. "I don't think it helps"
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