We’re Ready for i-Ready and NYS Exams!

As you may recall from last year’s February Currents, we always take this time to bring you up to speed on New York State and i-Ready exams.  The state has made several changes to NYS exams to create the most accurate measure of student success such as involving teachers in the creation and selection of test items, reducing the number of items on the test, and making the test untimed.  Even though the exam continues to be revised from year-to-year, GCCS is still accountable for overall student performance.

In addition to NYS testing measures, GCCS uses i-Ready to assess academic performance throughout the year.  i-Ready is a very timely and targeted benchmarking program that supports teachers’ classroom assessments in determining students’ academic achievement.  Each year, teachers compare NYS results to i-Ready results and find strong alignment between these two measures.  This is encouraging to know that i-Ready can provide the school with up-to-date information about student growth in addition to the NYS results the school receives each year.

GCCS uses these testing opportunities to deconstruct questions with students and have them practice how to take the exams, but we try hard not to create a stressful, high-pressure test culture, nor do we spend significant time on test preparation.  GCCS does everything in its power to not make standardized testing high stakes for students, but the tests will always continue to be high stakes for charter schools.

We encourage all students to participate in these testing measures.  Please note that if families decide to opt students out of exams, the school needs a written letter at least 24 hours in advance explaining which specific exams students will be opting out of so that the school can plan accordingly.  Students who opt out of the tests will be given appropriate classwork to do in lieu of the exams.

Here are the dates for New York State Testing this year:

  • Grades 3 – 6 English and Language Arts:
    • Thursday and Friday, March 26 – 27th
  • Grades 3 – 6 Mathematics:
    • Wednesday and Thursday, April 22nd – 23rd

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Please see the Student Admissions Page for more information about our 2024-25 application process.