New York state education officials, in an attempt to boost confidence in test scores as they become part of teacher evaluations across the state, want to spend $2.1 million to hunt among millions of students' tests for evidence of cheating.
That would include spending $1 million to scour score sheets for suspicious erasing patterns, a tactic that has helped snag cheaters in cities such as Atlanta and Washington. The state will also ask the state Board of Regents to ban teachers from scoring their own students' tests starting in 2013.
The recommendations, which will be up for a vote before a Regents committee Monday, were crafted by a state Education Department task force convened over the summer to figure out ways to improve testing policies. The potential changes in New York come amid growing national concern about whether teachers will try to improve their performance evaluations by cheating on behalf of their students.
Officials stressed that they believe 99% of teachers are honest, but they said preventing teachers from scoring their own students' tests would take away any temptation to beef up scores.
If approved, the spending requests will go to the governor or Legislature.
The state will not prohibit teachers from acting as proctors for their students' tests. Several members of the Regents board last month said they worried about young children becoming nervous if their regular teachers were not in the classroom.
By this spring, the state hopes to be able to analyze erasure marks on about 500,000 tests, or 10% of the third- through eighth-grade tests and the high school-level Regents exams.
The state hasn't decided how it will pick answer sheets to analyze. Highly sensitive machines can detect when answers have been erased and changed, which could mean that a teacher or teachers systematically changed answers.
Education Commissioner John King said the sampling methodology "is certainly one way to try and both identify trends and also create a disincentive for test integrity violations."
In 2010, as part of a successful bid for $700 million in federal education funding, the state passed a law requiring school districts to begin including test scores in teacher evaluations. But the districts do not have to start using test score data—which often factor in variables such as poverty and special needs—until local unions adopt new contracts.
The state Education Department also said Friday it wants to spend $10 million for the rest of its testing program, which includes tests in grades three through eight and the Regents subject exams required for a diploma.
The request also includes $1.5 million to pay for a round of exams held in January. Last year, the January Regents exams were canceled, but a group of private donors led by Mayor Michael Bloomberg chipped in to reinstate them statewide.
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That would include spending $1 million to scour score sheets for suspicious erasing patterns, a tactic that has helped snag cheaters in cities such as Atlanta and Washington. The state will also ask the state Board of Regents to ban teachers from scoring their own students' tests starting in 2013.
The recommendations, which will be up for a vote before a Regents committee Monday, were crafted by a state Education Department task force convened over the summer to figure out ways to improve testing policies. The potential changes in New York come amid growing national concern about whether teachers will try to improve their performance evaluations by cheating on behalf of their students.
Officials stressed that they believe 99% of teachers are honest, but they said preventing teachers from scoring their own students' tests would take away any temptation to beef up scores.
If approved, the spending requests will go to the governor or Legislature.
The state will not prohibit teachers from acting as proctors for their students' tests. Several members of the Regents board last month said they worried about young children becoming nervous if their regular teachers were not in the classroom.
By this spring, the state hopes to be able to analyze erasure marks on about 500,000 tests, or 10% of the third- through eighth-grade tests and the high school-level Regents exams.
The state hasn't decided how it will pick answer sheets to analyze. Highly sensitive machines can detect when answers have been erased and changed, which could mean that a teacher or teachers systematically changed answers.
Education Commissioner John King said the sampling methodology "is certainly one way to try and both identify trends and also create a disincentive for test integrity violations."
In 2010, as part of a successful bid for $700 million in federal education funding, the state passed a law requiring school districts to begin including test scores in teacher evaluations. But the districts do not have to start using test score data—which often factor in variables such as poverty and special needs—until local unions adopt new contracts.
The state Education Department also said Friday it wants to spend $10 million for the rest of its testing program, which includes tests in grades three through eight and the Regents subject exams required for a diploma.
The request also includes $1.5 million to pay for a round of exams held in January. Last year, the January Regents exams were canceled, but a group of private donors led by Mayor Michael Bloomberg chipped in to reinstate them statewide.
News By:
online.wsj.com
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