Board Of Regents Head, DOE At Odds Over Monitoring Cheating On Standardized Exams
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Students' standardized test results determine their own promotions as well as schools' report cards, teachers' tenure and even the mayor's reputation, but now city and state officials are conflicted over whether the city Department of Education does enough to prevent cheating on standardized tests. NY1's Education reporter Lindsey Christ filed the following report. Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott said the city does a good job of stopping schools from cheating on state tests. On Thursday, on a panel with city educators, State Board of Regents Chancellor Merryl Tisch said it is not enough.
"The city has an obligation to show the public that what they've done here is real," Tisch said.
The reliability of those tests results is under the microscope after recent cheating scandals in other cities involving teachers, principals and district officials.
In Atlanta, 178 teachers were implicated this summer, after inspectors found a suspicious number of incorrect answers had been erased and changed to correct answers.
The inspection, called "erasure analysis," was canceled in the city just before Bloomberg took control of the schools.
The mayor and schools chancellor Walcott think it is not necessary.
"All it does is add expense, which we can't afford, and confusion," the mayor said on August 8.
Tisch disagreed on Thursday.
"I would really take this opportunity to word to the city to be proactive as they can be," Tisch said.
Department of Education Chief Academic Officer Shael Polakow-Suransky shot back that if the state thinks erasure analysis is important, the state should do it when it audits test scores.
"It would be simple for that process to include the kind of erasure analysis that you are suggesting is important on the state exams, which are the responsibility of New York State. And we would welcome that kind of oversight," said Polakow-Suransky.
He said the city already does a better job protecting against cheating than the rest of the state.
Tisch said while she believes the city's test gains are real, she thinks the public deserves more assurance.
"So much of what the mayor has done in this city has really been carved out around educational reform," Tisch said. "Therefore the numbers that we post in terms of what has transpired in the city need to in essence be shown to be bulletproof."