NYC Public School Parents: Testing expert points out severe flaws in NYS exams and urge... - 0 views
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Jeff Bernstein on 04 Mar 12Though most of the critiques so far focus on the inherently volatile nature and large margins of error in any such calculation, here in NY State we have a special problem: the state tests themselves have been fatally flawed for many years. There has been rampant test score inflation over the past decade; many of the test questions themselves are amazingly dumb and ambiguous; and there are other severe problems with the scaling and the design of these exams that only testing experts fully understand. Though the State Education Department claims to have now solved these problems, few actually believe this to be the case. As further evidence, see Fred Smith's analysis below. Fred is a retired assessment expert for the NYC Board of Education, who has written widely on the fundamental flaws in the state tests. Here, he shows how deep problems remain in their design and execution -- making their results, and the new teacher evaluation system and teacher data reports based upon them, essentially worthless. He goes on to urge parents to boycott the state exams this spring.