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Scores from the state math tests that students in grades 3-8 took earlier this spring will be released later this morning. You can watch the State Education Department’s 11 a.m. presentation in Albany from your computer.

As always, the scores are sure to be scoured for evidence of whether Mayor Bloomberg’s education reforms have resulted in achievement gains. A source told the Post that scores are up significantly, with the proportion of students testing as proficient or better in math jumping as much as 15 percentage points at some schools. Anecdotally, I’ve heard from a teacher who said the scores at her school are impressively high. (Schools have had the scores, on embargo, since late last week.)

But the key is not the percentage point gain; it’s what happened to scale scores, which are used to compare different tests across grades and years. It is possible for the proportion of students scoring as proficient to jump by a wide margin while at the same time scale scores, which are considered the most statistically useful way to evaluate test score gains, barely budge. (Aaron Pallas has written about this on GothamSchools.)

For example, reading test scores have jumped by 18 percentage points between 2006 and this year, but the scale scores for the same students actually fell by two points over the same period, I reported last month when the state reading test scores were released. But the scale scores for black and Hispanic students did jump by 16 points over the three years, compared to 6 points for white students.

State school officials will announce the results of this year’s state English tests this morning, at 11 a.m. To watch the news conference live, either begin driving to Albany immediately or visit one of these Web sites, depending on which video player you have:

Windows Media

Real Player

Chancellor Joel Klein will give his interpretation of the city’s results at a separate press conference at Tweed Courthouse this afternoon, at 1 p.m. Come back here for the latest intelligence.

And, while you’re waiting, consider obtaining a big fat grain of salt, bigger yet given that it’s an election year, and political opponents of Mayor Bloomberg’s are zeroing in on his claims of improved student performance. Last year, New York City scores shot up to historic highs, and Bloomberg and Schools Chancellor Klein said the improvements were evidence that they are succeeding at turning around the public schools.

But testing experts said the increased scores on state tests didn’t necessarily mean that students were learning more than students in the past. The experts pointed to relatively smaller gains — and in some cases, no gains at all — on the national benchmark test, the National Assessment of Educational Progress, plus a phenomenon called “score inflation,” in which practices like test prep make test scores rise faster than actual learning.

Here is where you can watch today’s state Senate hearing on education budget cuts, live on the Internet. Richard Mills, the state education commissioner, is now urging lawmakers to continue doling out promised Campaign for Fiscal Equity payments — even if the scheduled increases have to slow down somewhat. Governor Paterson’s budget proposal calls for freezing the CFE increases, and delaying the promised hundreds of millions still left to come for several years.

To watch the live Internet video, make sure you have Real Player downloaded. Chancellor Joel Klein will testify soon.

Here’s Mills testifying, and more about what he said is below the jump:

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