District-wide Scores Rise; Double-Digit Gains in Many Areas

The Deer Park School District’s commitment to educational excellence can be seen in the latest New York State Assessment results. Deer Park student scores have improved, or remained at a high level, across the board in grades 3-8 on the 2008-2009 Math and English Language Arts (ELA) exams. Many of the impressive gains over the 2007-2008 school year can be attributed to the cooperative hard work and dedication of the district’s students, teachers and administration.    

“Greater emphasis was placed on using individualized student reports and teacher reports,” said Deputy Superintendent Eva J. Demyen, who led the effort. “Curriculum was rewritten in both disciplines to strengthen student attention in areas where they showed prior deficiencies. The key was not to teach to the test, but to focus on New York State core curricula and use the best practices to deliver the concepts, skills and processes that are needed at that particular grade level.”

The district-wide effort has been implemented and its positive effects are already benefiting students and their academic careers.  The following are the percentages of students meeting or exceeding the New York State standard by scoring in Levels 3 and 4 of the respective exams.


Grade Level         ELA 07-08         ELA 08-09            Math 07-08    Math 08-09
    3                            83––––>          83                          97––––>        98
    4                            75––––>          87                          90––––>        90
    5                            83––––>          87                          87––––>        93
    6                            80––––>          90                          90––––>        93
    7                            72––––>          90                          92––––>        97
    8                            61––––>          74                          74––––>        94


“We are all very proud of our students and the fact that they are achieving a significantly higher level of success on these exams,” added Superintendent of Schools Elizabeth Marino. “It’s a testament to the many hours of staff and curriculum development our educators put in. Our goal is to continue to improve teaching and learning; so that we can be the best we can be and help the children of Deer Park achieve their full potential and exceed expectations.”