New York State lowered the bar for students to pass 2025 reading, math exams

City officials are crowing over gains on the 2025 reading and math exams, but the state lowered the passing benchmarks for some students — raising questions about boasts of substantial academic progress, experts told The Post.

The tests, given statewide to NYC public school kids in grades 3 through 8, required third graders to get just 57% of questions correct on the English Language Arts exam to pass, down from 60% last year.

Fourth graders had to get 56% right, down from 65%, and 6th graders had to answer 57% correctly, down from 63%, according to a stunning analysis by the Times-Union.

https://nypost.com/2025/08/16/us-news/nys-lowered-the-bar-for-some-students-to-pass-2025-reading-math-exams/