State Needs To Release ELA/Math Tests In Their Entirety

Gotham Schools reported that the state, anticipating pushback on their standardized testing regime with scores expected to fall significantly on the new Common Core test results to be released this week, is going to let the public see a “significant number” of questions from the new Common Core-aligned tests that students took in April.

The release of some test items by the state is meant to short-circuit criticism over the quality of the Pearson-developed tests.

But releasing some test questions (the state says a "significant" number of test questions, but the meaning of the word "significant" is open to interpretation) is not going to short-circuit the criticism of the tests in the least.

The state need to release the exams in their entirety, as children saw them, with field test items included, as well as the grading rubrics and scoring charts, so that parents can see just what their kids were up against last April.

Releasing some questions from each test in isolation of the test as whole without the context of the grading rubric and scoring charts will not allow parents or the public to gauge how fair or well-designed these tests were.

This release of some test items is a propaganda move by NYSED Commissioner John King and Merryl Tisch, meant to sway parents and the public to the state's assertion of the validity of the tests without truly giving scrutiny to the testing regime.

It's much like Nixon releasing his own edited version of the White House tapes to prove he wasn't a crook.

It takes the whole body of the tapes, just as it takes the whole body of the testing regime, along with grading rubrics and scoring charts, to get true transparency and give real scrutiny.

Unless Tisch and King release the exams in their entirety, as children saw them, with field test items included, as well as the grading rubrics and scoring charts, this move by the state proves nothing other than they're the pressure and criticism from the growing number of opponents and critics of their corporate testing cause.