Submitted by Abraham Samuels, Jun 22, 2007 16:26

The NY Sun and Fred Smith deserve immense credit for this column. It is lucid, instructive and far from trivial. It makes three points that nail everything wrong about the way testing is being conducted in New York (State and City) and the rest of the country. 1) There is an unwholesome relationship between test publishers and the education officials whom they are hired to serve. Both have a bottom line that doesn't help students or teachers. In fact, it impedes education. Chancellors and Commissioners want to look good at all costs. Publishers want to make that happen in order to preserve their lucrative contracts. This creates a cozy, mutually beneficial collaboration--where scores miraculously keep going up. 2) Since the two work together to set standards each year--after the test has been administered--they can make adjustments that raise or lower the standard. This ensures that not too many students fail--or that enough students are deemed proficient each year to declare that "progress" has been made. In effect the standards are a rubber rule that bends the results to the need for good news. Districts and schools also cannot afford to have too many failures -- for budgetary reasons. The more kids you have who need special services, the more strain there is on the budget -- to fund provision of those servcies. The standard setting procedures is done in a murky way--and the final say about the cutoff scores is left entirely in the dirty hands of the two business partners. 3) Therefore, as the piece points out, there is the overwhelmingly obvious need for an independent body to look at all phases of test construction, test adminsitration and how the results are reported. Since all of education, under the No Child Left Behind Act now revolves around testing--such a mechanism is vital to keep things the publishers and the education officers honest--or, at least, to have checks and balances in place to protect the public and taxpayers.

The Sun did a great job here. It brought light to a critical situation. It begins to blow away the house of cards that the current testing enterprise has become. Putting together a independent investigatory commission is long overdue. Let the examination of testing begin!

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