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Reading and math scores shot up across New York City鈥檚 public schools last school year, according to state test results released Monday.

Among students in grades 3-8, nearly 57% of students were considered proficient in math, an increase of 3.5 percentage points. The gains were even sharper in reading. About 56% of students were proficient in the subject, a 7 percentage point increase.

Those gains come after Mayor Eric Adams has made overhauling reading instruction , an effort that has won support from union leaders and in this November鈥檚 election. Top city officials argued Monday that their efforts are bearing fruit, as all elementary schools were required to use city-approved reading curriculums last school year through an initiative known as NYC Reads.

鈥淭his is what happens when we stay focused on evidence-based instruction and never lose sight of what鈥檚 possible for our young people,鈥� schools Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos said in a statement.

Experts said the test score gains were encouraging, but cautioned that many factors can influence them and it鈥檚 impossible to isolate the effect of the curriculum overhauls.

鈥淚t鈥檚 at least suggestive that there鈥檚 real improvement,鈥� said Aaron Pallas, a professor at Columbia University鈥檚 Teachers College who has studied school performance and accountability systems. Results from a also hinted at some progress.

At the same time, Pallas noted test scores increased statewide by a similar magnitude as in New York City, which 鈥渄oes tamp down a little bit that it鈥檚 something special New York City is doing.鈥� The city鈥檚 overall proficiency rates are slightly higher than those statewide, where 53% of students are proficient in reading and 55% are proficient in math.

City Education Department officials also mounted an targeting students who were at the cusp of passing the exams, which may have played a role in the test score increase. Some experts criticized that approach because it could create incentives for schools to focus on students close to proficiency rather than those furthest behind.

Officials noted that reading scores increased more sharply in earlier grades that were subject to the reading curriculum changes. There was an 11.6 percentage point jump in reading proficiency among students in grades 3-5 who were in the first phase of schools that started using the new curriculums two years ago. Among the second phase of schools, which implemented the curriculum changes last year, reading scores increased 10.4 percentage points.

Overall, Pallas said that more data is needed to draw firm conclusions about student proficiency over time. 鈥淚f there鈥檚 real growth, it should be sustained. And that requires looking at scores over the next couple years,鈥� he said.

Michael Mulgrew, president of the teachers union, said in a statement that the test score increases are 鈥渁 testament to the hard work by New York City educators and our students. He singled out Aviles-Ramos, noting she 鈥渇ought the Education Department] bureaucracy to make sure the needs of students and school communities came first.鈥�

The continued to reflect deep disparities between different student groups, though in some cases those gaps narrowed somewhat.

Black students, for instance, posted the largest test score increases in reading and math in the city鈥檚 public schools of any racial group. But they still lag their white and Asian American peers.

About 75% of Asian American students and 73% of white students were proficient in reading compared with 43.5% of Latino children and 47% of Black students. (Black students鈥� proficiency jumped about 8 percentage points.)

Meanwhile, nearly 81% of Asian American students and 75% of white students passed state math exams while only 43% of Black and Latino students were considered to be on grade level.

Only 29% of students with disabilities were proficient in math and nearly 27% were in reading. Even as students with disabilities made some gains in reading and math, the gap between those children and their nondisabled peers widened slightly.

Among students learning English as a new language, nearly 30% were proficient in math and 12.5% were proficient in reading 鈥� a gain of more than 4 percentage points in both categories.

The state exams have undergone a series of tweaks in recent years that have to draw comparisons from the results year over year. For the last two years, the tests have remained stable, meaning the results should be comparable.

The state Education Department has expanded computer-based testing in lieu of paper exams and all students will take digital versions of the test next school year. Pallas said it is unlikely that will dramatically skew the results, though some schools have struggled with .

Curious about school-level test results? Here is a searchable breakdown of math and English scores across all of the city鈥檚 public schools. (Charter schools are included in the table but not in the district鈥檚 overall numbers above.)

This story was originally published by Chalkbeat. Sign up for their newsletters at . Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.

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