No surprise that the big jump in NYS test scores was due to lowering the passing score – this is what's been happening all over the country and underscores the need for common standards.  You can't even begin to fix a problem if you lie about the data – though of course that's the politically expedient thing to do, so HUGE kudos to state ed Commissioner David Steiner for speaking the truth and committing to raising the bar A LOT! 

 

Ravitch of course will blame Bloomberg and Klein (I'm waiting for her to blame them for the housing bubble and global warming), but as usual, she'll be wrong: they don't set state standards.  It was Steiner's predecessor, Richard Mills, who rigged the scoring so that he (and testing, more generally) would look good.

New York State education officials acknowledged on Monday that their standardized exams had become easier to pass over the last four years and said they would recalibrate the scoring for tests taken this spring, which is almost certain to mean thousands more students will fail.

…"The only possible conclusion is that something strange has happened to our test," David M. Steiner, the education commissioner, said during a Board of Regents meeting in Albany. "The word 'proficient' should tell you something, and right now that is not the case on our state tests."

…The state said it had begun to include a broader range of topics on its tests, making the questions less predictable. Dr. Steiner refused to say what the passing scores would be for the tests this year but said the numbers would be a "major shift." Last year, 77 percent of students statewide were deemed proficient in English, up from 62 percent in 2006; 86 percent passed the math test, compared with 66 percent three years earlier. The scores this year are expected to be released at the end of the month.

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State's Exams Became Easier to Pass, Education Officials Say

By JENNIFER MEDINA

Published: July 19, 2010

www.nytimes.com/2010/07/20/nyregion/20tests.html