A Test of Honesty
Trip Gabriel at the NYT reports on test-taking at a school in Queens:
Multiple choice: New York State’s fifth-grade social studies test was given Nov. 16 and 17. After students completed the test, which of the following should NOT have occurred:
(A) Students waited patiently to learn the results.
(B) Students enjoyed the week without worrying how they had done.
(C) Students received their test booklets back the next week and were allowed to answer omitted questions.
The correct answer is C, but that is what happened at a Queens elementary school after the principal ordered that 10 students get a second chance at the test a week after handing it in, an apparent violation of state regulations.
I’ve never understood why folks excuse or justify teachers or administrators altering test answers with the argument that educators are under pressure to produce results. I doubt that the same folks would be so understanding if it were Wall Street types or Big Businessmen or medical researchers messing with the numbers because they were under the same pressure.
In any case, the social studies test in question was not a high-stakes test:
Across the country, states and school districts have pursued cases against teachers and principals suspected of cheating to raise students’ scores on standardized tests. Critics of testing point to the pressure on educators to produce results that are used to determine their merit pay, tenure and career advancement.
But the fifth-grade social studies exam — unlike the New York State math and English tests — is a relatively low-stakes test that does not figure into city or state accountability measures. For that reason, one P.S. 86 staff member said, Ms. Zuvic’s motive was less to improve her own standing than to allow students to raise scores that would be entered in their records.
I guess students learned something by getting their test booklets back. But it wasn’t social studies.
