Why The Atlanta Testing Scandal Matters

NPR reports:

a last year found confirmed reports of cheating on at least one standardized test in 33 states in the school years 2010-'11 and 2011-'12. Thirty-two of the 33 states, the report said, "canceled, invalidated, or nullified" test scores as a result of suspected cheating.

by the economists Brian Jacob of the University of Michigan and Steven Levitt of the University of Chicago analyzed test answers from the Chicago Public Schools. They found evidence of serious cheating in 3 to 5 percent of elementary school classrooms. That doesn't sound so bad.

But, the experimenters cautioned, their methods captured only the most egregious kinds of cheating: those that came from teachers or administrators actually altering test papers. It's this type of outlandish behavior that's alleged to have occurred in Atlanta, where some schools allegedly held "erasing parties" to change answer sheets behind closed doors.

No word yet on this story from conspiracy denier Cass Sunstein.