In the News: School testing fraud

This news story is from Long Island.

Probe reveals school test fraud is multiplying

Musto, who was testifying at a state licensing hearing, said he had worried that his students weren't adequately prepared for the June 2004 exam because he had taken time off from classes to look for another job. Further, Musto insisted, he had been advised by colleagues that it was OK to "give a student a point or two, just don't get caught" -- an allegation rejected by Freeport authorities.

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Meanwhile, the education department itself faces complaints that it isn't taking test security seriously enough. One controversy revolves around the department's decision earlier this month to allow Uniondale High School to store Regents exams on its premises during the latest administration, despite evidence that one or more Uniondale staffers had falsified students' test answer sheets over the previous two years.

This raises a difficult questions. How do you evaluate school performance if test results are the product of cheating? This goes back to another problem with testing and education. It pushes schools to be more invested in raising test scores than academic proficiency.

So, if test results are not reliable, what else is there? A "public school friend" of mine visited the local middle schools, before deciding where to send her daughter. She described getting a "bad feeling" from the class room. She took the time to read the student assignments posted on the walls and to watch how the students reacted to the teacher. She noted how the students treated each other. In a short amount of time, she concluded that this was NOT the right place for her child even though the school reported supposedly good test scores. She visited the school and just "knew" the quality of the education.

Homeschool families have similar experiences. I remember a statement I heard at my first homeschooling conference: "Homeschooling parents just know how their children are doing."
It is not the result of one test, but the sum of a thousand little data points gathered by spending prolonged contact with your children.

So, back to "How do you evaluate a school without relying on faulty test data?" You have to be on the inside or know someone who is inside the system because everything else is just smoke and mirrors.

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Related Tags: standardized testing, public school, homeschool, cheating