Regents know score on cheating
Junior year HS students at Brentwood schools take the English Regents given at the school. Credit: Newsday, 1999/Don Jacobsen
As the stakes attached to standardized tests rise in New York, particularly for teachers and principals, it's natural that the temptation to game the results will grow. So anti-cheating measures need to get stronger as well.
The state Board of Regents' plan to bar teachers from grading their own students' tests starting in the 2012-13 school year is a good start. Studies of Regents exam results, traditionally graded by the teachers of the test takers, already show there are far more students passing by just a point or two than failing by the same margin. That's a statistically unlikely result that indicates graders are giving their students the benefit of the doubt -- and that's without that test performance being used to assess the teacher.
In places like Atlanta and Washington, where educators are already being judged by the results of their students, widespread cheating scandals have erupted.
How tests are scored in New York will change for all grades, but the Regents have not yet produced an exact plan. Officials say schools could swap tests for grading and exams could be evaluated at regional scoring centers, both good ideas for tests that aren't multiple choice. But most such tests are multiple choice, and computers should score them. It's the cheapest, fastest and least corruptible way to score standardized tests and should become standard, freeing teachers to spend time with their students.
