Illinois Changes the Rules to get Better Test Scores

The Chicago Tribune reports on a fraud of Enron style proportions:

llinois elementary school pupils passed the newly revamped state achievement exams at record rates last year, but critics suggest it was more the result of changes to the tests than real progress by pupils.

Overall, children passed 77 percent of all math, reading and science exams they took in 2006, compared with 69 percent the year before, according to a Tribune analysis of test data.

The 8 percentage-point gain is the biggest one-year increase since the state started giving the Illinois Standards Achievement Test in 1999.

On most exams, the 2005-2006 gains outpaced the improvement made over the previous five years combined. Low-income and minority pupils posted the largest increases, which helped narrow the pernicious gap between their performance and that of their white, Asian and more affluent counterparts.

State and local educators attribute the improvement to smarter pupils and teachers' laser-like focus on the state learning standards—the detailed list of what pupils should know at each grade level. They also say that the more child-friendly exams, which included color and better graphics, helped pupils.

But testing experts and critics suggest that the unprecedented growth is more likely the result of changes to the exams.

Most notably, the state dramatically lowered the passing bar on the 8th-grade math test. As a result—after hovering at about 50 percent for five years—the pass rate shot up to 78 percent last year.

While the number of test questions remained generally the same, the number that counted on pupil scores dropped significantly.

Last year, pupils were scored on 51 questions on reading tests, state officials said, compared with about 67 in 2005. Pupils also were scored on one extended response, compared with two the year before. Extended response, which requires pupils to answer in essay form, is tougher than multiple choice.

Pupils also had more time. In reading, for example, pupils had up to 165 minutes, compared with 120 the year before.

"It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that something doesn't compute here," said Lawrence Aleamoni, an education professor at the University of Arizona who has written extensively about tests. "The big jumps tell me something is going on here. All of the changes they made to the test will certainly inflate the scores."

Since certain special interest groups want higher taxes:getting better test scores one way or another is essential.The ethics in the "public sector" sure are amazing.